The Book The Vesper Rising
by Catfriend3000
Summary: ON HIATUS! Nothing really new, just another reading the books series BUT there is ONE DIFFERENCE, instead of book 1-10 it's about "Vesper Rising". Takes place after Vesper Rising.
1. Chapter 1: Back Home and Back Out

**A/N: This is my first story EVER on this site so please be kind(unless I'm that bad)(which I hope I'm not).**

**And I DON'T OWN A THING!**

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><p>Amy and Dan Cahill didn't sit down for more than a mere 5 minutes, before the phone rang.<p>

The two siblings had just got back from surviving Casper Wyoming in Switzerland. Casper was a Vesper, a family like the Cahills looking for the 39 clues.

Nellie Gomez, was the two's au pair; now she's their "older sister", greeted when they came back. For she had to go to Costa Rica for five days.

"Hey kiddos, have fun?" Nellie asked.

"Sure, if you count almost dying in a cable car, being chased down a mountain, and seeing practically all of a woman's blood coming out of a closet fun. Then yes," was Dan Cahill's reply.

"Wha-" was all Nellie could say before Amy Cahill interrupted.

"We were chased by a Vesper agent for the ring," Amy held the ring up to Nellie.

"Whoa, this is the ring? This why you guys we-" Nellie said only to be interrupted again by the phone.

"I'll get," Fiske Cahill, Amy and Dan's great-uncle and their new guardian, said.

Amy, Dan, and Nellie walked into the kitchen where Fiske was talking on the phone.

"Will do William," Fiske put the phone down and turned to the others. "That was Mr. McIntyre. He just informed me that the Vespers are starting to attack Cahills around the world now. Kidnapping, poisoning, killing, and other vile things. Since you and the other clue hunters are now officially Madrigals, it's your job to stop them," Fiske paused.

"How are a bunch of kids supposed to stop a family eviler than ours! We barely survived ours!" Amy said.

"I'm not quite finished. Mr. McIntyre invited every clue hunter back to the gauntlet to tell you about the history of the Vesper," before Fiske could continue, Dan yelled:

"No. Not more history don't I get enough of that at school and on the clue hunt!"

"Anyway," Fiske continued as if Dan never said anything, "since there's a new enemy, Mr. McIntyre thought that it be best to knew who and what the enemy is like."

"Makes senses," Nellie said. Amy nodded as an agreement. "So when do we leave?"

"Mr. McIntyre said that we have to be there by Saturday, so considering that today is Thursday, I guess tomorrow would be perfect."

"Sounds good to me." Dan said. Probably thinking about that instead of learning about boring things that was wrong, like the facts about the tombs in Egypt, he'll be on a mission.

"What about school?" Amy asked.

"Don't you both have a break after Friday? For two weeks?" Fiske said, the two nodded. "Well then hope that this meeting doesn't go on for too long."

Amy looked happy that she wasn't going to miss any school. Dan however looked like he was disappointed to _not _missing school.

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><p>That night everyone was packing, including Fiske, whom according to him had to go another meeting at the Easter Island.<p>

Both Amy and Dan couldn't sleep that night, worrying about the Vesper and what could happen in the near future.

As of an old habit Amy found a book and started to read it. Dan instead of reading petted Saladin's fur. Both activities were calming to the two. Around 1:30 AM the siblings went to bed.

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><p><strong>AN: Might be a little rushed at the end but whatever I couldn't really think of anything**

**And PLZZZZ reveiw**

**-Catfriend3000  
><strong>


	2. Chapter 2: Back With the Others

**A/N: Second chapter! My goal for this story is to actually finish this one. This one is pretty long(well longer than the first chapter by like 800 words or so) Once I get to the reading the updates will probably slow down by A LOT. Also from now on I'll be doing grammar check (hopefully) everyime I update  
>One more thing: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING<strong>

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><p>Chapter 2:<p>

Being back on an airplane squished between Dan and Nellie reminded Amy of what life was weeks ago. Dan was snacking on some last minute picked up snacks while watching a movie. Nellie was listening to some music she got in Costa Rica.

The plane ride felt like it when on for all eternity to Dan, but really it was a few hours.

The Cahills were taking a plane to Ireland, and then the Madrigals would send a helicopter and a pilot to take them to the Cahill Island. Before they got onto the helicopter, they had a small lunch. Well except for Dan maybe...

"You're going to make yourself sick if you keep eating," Amy lectured. She was sharing a half of a sandwich with Nellie. Dan was having a 3 pieces of pizzas and 2 bags of chips.

"But I'm still hungry," Dan whined.

"You ate almost half of the store's stock of chips," Nellie chimed in.

"That was an," Dan paused taking a bit out of the second slice of pizza, "appetizer."

"Mrrp," Saladin meowed looking up from his food, as if he agreed with Dan.

"See Saladin knows what I'm talking about," Dan pointed at Saladin.

"The two of you are walking stomachs," Amy sighed barely loud enough for them to hear her.

"And you are a walking brain," Dan retorted.

"Whatever," Amy rolled her eyes, and going back to her 'lunch'.

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><p>-Few Hours Later-<p>

"And think that the last time we were here was when-" Nellie started.

"We know, Isabel was trying to kill us in the Gauntlet while you and bunch other people were tie up in the graveyard," Dan interrupted.

"I was going to say that this is where the hunt ended and that everyone was somewhat friendlier to one another. But your thing works too," Nellie called back.

"Ahhh!" Dan shouted.

Dan was lifted up to someone's shoulders, by the only person who could do that to Dan and that was Hamilton Holt. Behind him were the other Holts getting off of a boat.

"What's up, Hamilton? Long time no seen," Amy asked.

"Your brother is up if that's what you're asking," Hamilton laughed than looked at Amy who was slightly amused to see her brother on top of a Holt.

"Hamilton this is fun and all but, PUT ME DOWN!" Dan screamed kind of loud.

"Okay, okay down you go little pal," Hamilton said grinning the whole time.

"Thank you," Dan said under his breathe, rubbing his arm where Hamilton picked him up.

"It's good to see you two."

"Back at you Hamilton," Amy said.

"Nice one Ham. We saw the whole thing from the boat," one of the twins called out.

"It looked like fun. How come you never do that to us?" the other pouted.

"You guys wouldn't have the same reaction as Dan did here. Besides you'll expect it if I told you that one day I was going to you," Hamilton told the twins. He looked proud of his reasoning.

"Nice one Tomas. You actually-," a voice interrupted the five's conversation.

"Made sense and did logic," another voice finished the others'.

"Congratulation," the two voices cheered at the same time.

Everyone one there, all five Holts, Amy, Dan and Nellie, turned to see Ned and Ted Starlings smirking.

Eisenhower looked like he was tempted to hit one of the Starlings boys for making fun of his son. But before he could put that thought into action, Alistair Oh walked up to everyone with Sinead Starling close behind him.

"Now, now Ned, Ted. Don't cause a fight unless fully needed. And in this case it isn't needed," Alistair talking like he was stopping a war that didn't really needed to happen. Ned and Ted looked at the ground sheepishly.

"How have you guys been?" Sinead said ignoring her brothers at the moment.

"Keeping in shape!" was what most of the Holts yelled together.

"Been chased down a mountain skiing," Dan explaining. With most people, they would just look like he was crazy. And in Amy's mind, and some other Cahills too, he was. But these were the Cahills themselves so they understood what could of happen.

"Reading," was Amy's response.

"What about you? Uh," Sinead looked at Nellie, "um...Ellie," Sinead guessed.

"It's Nellie and I was in Costa Rica this week."

"Really! The clothes there are really good for espionage** (A/N: this is just a guess, never really been to Costa Rica)**," a new voice joined in. And of course the only person there who would care that much about clothes was Natalie Kabra.

"Ahh! What's a Cobra doing here! I thought that this island would be free of these animals!" Dan yelped and pointed at Natalie, showing that no time soon that he'll be giving up that nickname. And not too far behind Natalie was Ian Kabra.

"Hello, Daniel nice to see you and on this fine day too," Ian greeted with small smirk.

The weather was good. A few clouds, a light breeze, and the sun shining.

"Well it was fine until two snakes came," Dan retorted. Though everyone was on somewhat good terms, they still fought with each other.

Before Ian or Natalie could say anything about the name 'snake', for the fourth time a voice interrupted. This time it was:

"Yo, I thought we fight we each any more, cuz'," Jonah Wizard rapped? walking from behind a palm leaf.

"Don't bet on it," everybody murmured except, Eisenhower, Mary-Todd, Alistair, Dan, Natalie, and Jonah.

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><p>Mr. McIntyre walked up to the group, "Oh, good everyone here, and early too. Even better."<p>

"Mr. McIntyre could you tell us why we're here?" Alistair questioned. He, like some other people, didn't trust Mr. McIntyre

"Yes course, I just wanted to make sure that everyone was here, and it looks like. Follow me."

Mr. McIntyre led the 15 people to what looked like a giant rock/boulder.

"This is it?" almost everybody asked.

"No," Mr. McIntyre whispered. He took out what looked like a pen but, it was a black light reader that showed up as the Madrigals' crest. The rock moved and to everyone it felt like an earthquake. When the rock stopped moving it revealed a huge circular room with beds, book cases, tables, desk, a few strategy games like chess and SET, two T,Vs , and a circular table in the middle with a small red book, "This is it."

Besides all the things in there, some(most) the furniture was of high quality, other pieces were the quality you'd see in a middle class family.

After everyone walked in Mr. McIntyre started to talk again, "This is where the 'meeting' will take place. This is the only place where you'll allow being in. There are other rooms but their doors connecting to this room is lock. There are 5 bathrooms. I imagine that you all don't want share the same bathroom. Beside each bed there is a closet full of clothes each fitted to the style from who will wear it** (A/N: tell me if that doesn't makes sense and I'll change it)**," everyone looked around the room.

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><p>Dan and Hamilton were looking at the T.V. Sinead, Alistair, and Amy was looking at the bookcases. Natalie was looking though each closet to find the one fitted to her taste. The rest of the Holts started to do basic exercise-as a warm up. Ned, Ted, Nellie, and Jonah headed to the computers. Ned and Ted wanted to see if what model this computer was. Nellie what to find more songs to listen to. And Jonah what to update his blog saying that he won't be able to make his Paris concert on Sunday, but does have an autograph session that he'll be singing at in Paris, to make it up to his fans.<p>

While everyone was doing their own thing, no one notice that Mr. McIntyre left a note and locked the door that they all came through.

**A/N: The big room is like a Roman Colosseum, if you haven't guessed yet. And sorry if anyone is OOC.**

**-Catfriend3000  
><strong>


	3. Chapter 3: More History

**A/N: Dear SUPER kind reader,  
><strong>

**This is just a filler chapter. Nothing really exciting happens here- well kind of. New information about what they'll be doing is here so i don't know what you call that.**

** P.S: I OWN N-O-T-H-I-N-G**

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><p>Chapter 3:<p>

After some time, each Cahill took a seat around the round table.

"Has anyone seen Mr. McIntyre?" Sinead questioned and scanned the room for the lawyer.

A mix of "no", "nope", and "I haven't notice" filled the room.

"So no one has seen him?" Madison raised an eyebrow.

"The last I saw him was when we walked," Ian thought out loud.

"Same," Jonah agree.

Soon everyone agreed on the sentence.

"So what do we do now? Mr. McIntyre said that this was a meeting about the Vesper," Dan looked from face to face.

Saladin jumped up to the table and Natalie backed away. Everyone **(Sorry if I use that word too much in the story)** was deep in thought of what could've happen to Mr. McIntyre, to notice that Saladin let out an 'Mrrp'. Saladin was looking at the red book on the table. The book had a note on it. But still no one noticed. Finally Amy came out of her thought.

"What's that Saladin?" Amy looked over to the cat and snapped Dan back to reality.

"Mrrp," Saladin looked at Dan.

"It's a note from Mr. McIntyre!" Dan and Amy cheered loud enough to get everyone else back into reality too.

"Well what does it say, Daniel?" Ian said perking up a bit.

"Ahem," Dan cleared his throat as if he was giving life or death speech,

_Dear Clue Hunts,_

_ You all are now most definitely curious and distrusting__** (not sure if that the right word)**__about this gathering. It's true that you are going to learn the history of the Vesper. Along with that you'll hear the story of two important Cahills and a more recent event. The red book that this note is on is the one with all the answer._

"Oh goodie. More history," Dan said sarcastically.

Amy and Nellie rolled their eyes. Dan had said something similar to that yesterday.

_Food will fall from the sky light above your head three times a day. There will be enough for all of you. And no seconds to the Holts and Dan._

Both the Holt family and Dan couldn't believe that. Dan was 70% sure that if there wasn't enough food, he would die of hunger.

_Take your time with the books, but don't take too long. It'll take time to get all this information in._

_Good Reading._

_-Mr. McIntyre and Madrigals  
><em>

"Well than," Alistair started, "shall we get start?"

_I don't know which one is more likely to bore me to death, this or Ms. ZZZZZZZZZZ's lectures. _Dan thought

"I'll do the honors to start, homies," Jonah said and grabbed the book.

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><p><strong>AN: Next chapter is a reading chapter. I'm somewhat scared that people won't like it or that it's not going to be good as people expect it. I'm working on the next chapter now and it's hard to think up of commentary for each character without it seeming too OOC and sorry if anyone seems OOC(IDK if the last line is OOC). Oh well, since each different time period doesn't have chapters, I'm going to split the four stories myself.  
><strong>

**-Catfriend3000  
><strong>


	4. Chapter 4: Reading Gideon Cahill part 1

**A/N: Okay so this is the first reading chapter. Yay!(or boo. which ever you want) It's not the longest chapter so far, but it's longer than the last. Which I apologize about the shortness. I couldn't really think of anything to write about and I needed to explain somethings(i.e the food falling from the sky)(which would really cool if that happen to me). Originally this chapter and the next were all in one, but that would be like 2,000 words. Though some of you would have like that, it would be harder for me to edit. And so far I've been keeping a good pace, but knowing me the pace will drop(hopefully for my readers and myself I'll break that habit). **

**This is only up to page 3 of 238, so I have LONG ways to go. I don't really having anything planed for the rest of the summer, so I can focus on this fanfic. Hopefully.  
><strong>

**Ok, now I'm ranting(sorry) On with the reading(again Yay! or boo, your choice).**

**And again- I DON'T OWN A SINGLE THING**

**Enjoy!**

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><p>Chapter 4:<strong><br>**

**Gideon Cahill-1507**

**Damien Vesper didn't plan on killing anyone today.**

"That's a _fantastic_ start," Nellie said sarcastically.

**It was a fine autumn morning. A crisp wind had blown away the fog, and sunshine sparkled on the Celtic Sea.**

"Where's that?" Dan interrupted and questioned.

Amy, Ian, Natalie, and the Starlings triplets rolled their eyes.

"The island is located on the Celtic Sea, my dear boy," Alistair answered his question.

**In the distance, the coast of the Irish mainland stretched out lush and green. All of that land, as far as Damien could see, had been controlled by the Vesper family for centuries. **

"Wait," Madison called out, "I thought that this island belongs to the Cahill."

"I don't think he's talking about the island," Hamilton replied.

**From this island, a mile offshore, Damien couldn't see his ancestral estate-a castle he hadn't visited in over a year. He couldn't see his peasants dying or hear them crying in the stench of death. Far to the northeast, one pillar of smoke snaked into the blue sky- probably anther village being burned-but otherwise everything looked peaceful and beautiful. No sign of the Black Death.**

"Black Death? What's that?" Reagan spoke up.

Amy answered this question, "During Gideon Cahill's time, there was sickness going all over the known world then. Once you got, you were for sure to die within days of getting. It' also known as the Plague, The Black Plague, and other. It got started by rats and fleas spreading the disease to people."

**Damien sipped his mulled wine, enjoying the scent of clove and nutmeg. He found it ridiculous that in this modern age, the year 1507, he still had to flee the plague- the same sickness that had cursed Ireland in his great-great-great-grandfather's time. **

"It went on for _that_ long?" Dan shrieked** (A/N: not the right word, but something like that)**.

"It was a devastating time for the world then."

**So many advances in the sciences since that, so many amazing discoveries, and still the plague hampered his plans. **

"Plans?" Dan said, not really wanting to figure out the plan of the original Vesper. **  
><strong>

**But no matter. The Black Death couldn't touch him here. He simply left his lieutenants in charge on the mainland to collect his taxes. He ignored their nervous reports about the hundreds dying each week, his peasants' annoying pleas for help.**

"He would fit right in with the Lucians," Ned whispered.

**He continued his work in peace, enjoying the acquisition his agents sent him for across Europe.**

**He gazed at the woodblock-panel map now adorning his wall- a beauty piece just arrived from France. **

"He could also fit in with the Janus too," Ted murmured.

**Reports and sketches from Italy covered his desk. Damien searched the world for rare treasures and powerful secrets. **

"Sounds like what the clue hunt was, in a way. Searching for power secrets and inside dangerous areas..." Hamilton said under his breathe.

**Yet a single message whispered in his ear this morning by his neighbors' housekeeper might be more important than any intelligence he'd ever received. **

**Was it possible that the most power full secret in the world, a bit of information that could help Damien realize his wildest ambitions, was hiding right under his nose?**

"What was his _wildest ambition_?" Sinead asked.

"Yo, if you all would be quiet for 5 minutes," Jonah hissed at her and everyone else who has interrupted or made a comment, "you'll find out faster."

**This morning, he intended to find out. **

"This fellow sounds like a Vesper alright," Nellie said leaning back in her chair so that it was only balancing on the two back legs.

Out of everyone she seemed the most calmed. Probably because she knows the most about the Vespers out of everyone in the room

**His eyes drifted to the new mosaic on his ceiling: a circle five feet in diameter depicting the Vesper coat of arms, but it was more than decoration. **

"Let me guess: it's a trap and it crushes people who are under it when it falls," Ian talked as if he already knew what the device was.

"Shhh!" came from Jonah, Amy, Reagan, Hamilton and Natalie.

**He's recently installed the trap for his amusement. He'd thought to try it out on some lazy servant or the next guard who fell asleep on duty. But now it would serve a much more important purpose. He would test his theory. If he was right, Damien Vesper might become the most powerful man in the world.**

"Definitely a power hungry Lucian," Ned and Ted said together.

"Shut up you two." Sinead demanded.

**There was a rap at the door. His servant Balthazar stepped through, bowing low. "My lord, Gideon Cahill is here."**

"Why was Gideon there?" Eisenhower asked. A few agreed with him.

"Gideon and Damien were friends, before Gideon finish the formula serum," Nellie supplied the answer.

"How do you know?" both Amy and Dan asked.

"Well, before we told you guys that you guys were going to Switzerland, Fiske and Erasmus told me a little bit about the Vespers' ties into the Cahill family." Nellie said.

"Who Erasmus?" Natalie asked.

"Yo! Could we get back to the story, peeps?" Jonah said. No one said anything. So Jonah continued.

**Damien smiled. He didn't plan on killing anyone today. But he did believe in being flexible.**

"**Show him in," Damien ordered.**

"I agree with the Starling boys. Definitely a Lucian," Hamilton said nodding his head.

Right then the sky light opened revealing the evening sky. Two crates fell with a parachute and landed by the front door**(the door that they used to get in here)**.

Forgetting the book, Dan got up from his chair and bolted to the crates.

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><p><strong>AN: Okay so probably(or really) mad at me for stopping here, but like I said before(the first note) the chapter would turn up to be like 2,000 words. But yeah. Sorry about the ending, by FAR not the best. Probably in the whole world of fanfic. But like I said before, the chapter would be TOO long. And beside the next chapter doesn't really fit with this one. **

**It's hard to think of things that the character might say at certain parts. Most of it probably is because this is a different time period and none of the characters are in it. I'm sure once I get to Amy and Dan's story, it'll become a little easier.  
><strong>

**I'll already have the sixth chapter done by the time I post this. The reason why I don't post all the chapters at the same time it's because I like to be a few chapters ahead. Just so that I don't feel too pressured to finish the next one within a day.**** That's about it.**

**-Catfriend3000  
><strong>


	5. Chapter 5: Two Crates

**A/N: Okay this is actually A LOT shorter than I thought. Oh well, yeah so this and the last chapter didn't really go together. If you wondering why I'm not doing like three reading chapters in a row than an non-reading chapter, it's because I'm doing based off of time. And in between the second and third chapter there was a time skip. So by the time they finished the first three pages(which is sad on my part) it was time for dinner. In the middle of this chapter you might get confused. If you do tell me and I'll change it. **

**Oh and I'm not sure if I mentioned this but, they didn't take much luggage, because they thought it be like a 2-3 day meeting. Not a 2-3 week meeting.**

**And for the 5? time: I DO NOT OWN ANYTHING(and that includes the book titles I used)  
><strong>

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><p>Chapter 5:<p>

Dan, being as scrawny as he was, couldn't open the crate. Hamilton got up from his chair and, slower than how Dan got there, walked to the crate. All the others were very slowly making their way to the two crates.

Hamilton put his fingers barely under the lid of the first crate, and pried the lid off with one tug. Inside were different types of snacks. From Doritos to mini Nilla cookies.

"This is what we're supposed to eat!" Natalie shrieked.

"Wait. There's a note in here," Alistair said.

_Dear Clue Hunter,_

_ I realized that one crate of doesn't do much good for anyone really. The Holts would probably eat everything before anyone else could look inside the crate. So that's why I'm sending two. One crate will be full of meals for breakfast, lunch, and dinner. The other crate will be full of snacks for in between the crates. And don't worry about where to put the empty crates. There's a closet where you can put them.  
><em>

_Enjoy your meals._

_-Mr. McIntyre and Madrigals_

_P.S: Dan don't hog all the snack and try to limit yourself._

"Like Amy said, you are a walking stomach," Nellie said trying not to laugh at those last few words.

Hamilton, Jonah, Ned, and Ted laughed out loud. The Kabra's, like Nellie, tried to his their laughs. Dan was shooting daggers at Nellie for saying making almost everyone laugh at him. She just shrugged.

"Amy said that?" Sinead look over to Amy, who just shrugged too. "Truer words have never been spoken."

Since Hamilton was still laughing, and Eisenhower was hungry he did the same as son did and pried the second crate opened.

Inside was enough to be consider a giant feast for 15 people. Will since the Holts were here, it would probably even out so that everyone else could have enough and there wouldn't be any extra. And there was fresh(or as fresh as you can get) red snapper for Saladin. Natalie looked into the crate and a happier to see some more decent food. None to her taste though.

"Ahhhh!" Natalie shrieked loud enough for an echo to go around the room. "This is all peasant food. I can't eat this. I only eat from the finest chefs in the world. This is definitely not cooked by chefs. More like..."

By this point everyone droned out Natalie's complains and started to take some food out for them self.

Since there was only one big table, all of them ate there. Natalie finally agreed to eat, but she did glare at Madison who forced a potato chip into her mouth saying to shut up and eat or she'll hit her.

After dinner everyone didn't feel like reading, even Amy and Sinead, the book. So they all went to be at the right beds. Alistair had remembered that their closet is full of clothes suited to their style. And next to their closet was their bed. The beds were up against the perimeter of the room starting from the front door and going clock wise was: Nellie, Reagan, Amy, Madison, Natalie, Sinead, Mary-Todd, Ned, Ian, Jonah, Ted, Dan, Hamilton, Alistair, and finally Eisenhower on the other side of the door.

Natalie was about to start to rant about how though she has designer clothing, she didn't have enough. She said that she need just as many pajamas and she does for her day clothes.

But right at the start of the rant, Dan threw a pillow at her head. He missed, but did manage to hit her arm.

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><p>Once everyone was in their bed, which must have taken an hour knowing the Cahills and fighting, they got quiet. Some people feel asleep. Eisenhower, Mary-Todd, Reagan, Madison, Ned, Ted, Ian, Natalie, and Jonah all fell asleep after 15 minutes of quiet. Ian, Natalie, and Jonah's reason to go to sleep was that they all needed their <em>beauty sleep<em>. The Holts fell asleep, because that athlete does. Go to sleep early and get up early**(A/N: not sure if that's true or not but, it makes sense to me, if it is)**. Ned and Ted went to sleep because they just had surgery a few weeks ago and were still a little exhausted.

The other seven, Amy, Dan, Nellie, Alistair, Hamilton, and Sinead, all stay up doing their own little thing.

Dan and Hamilton, during dinner decided to play each other on the computer in some battle game. Nellie brought along her laptop, and of course her iPod, she checked her email. At different times, Amy, Alistair, and Sinead all quietly walked to the books. Each picking different book. Amy picked up a classical book, Lord of the Flies. Alistair picked up a historical fiction book, A Rumor War. And Sinead picked a science book, Beyond Earth.

Eventually, one by one the people who stayed up, went to bed.

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><p><strong>AN: I feel like I'm just ranting in author note part and I feel like every 6? chapters I should have a one big author's note for the last six chapter. Tell me if you want me to that or don't say anything and I'll continue like this.  
><strong>

**Back to the story: the three books- I just found random on the internet so I don't really know much about the books(I'm reading Lord of the Flies next school year).**

****And your wondering why I'm not making Eisenhower and Mary-Todd talking so much is because I HAVE NO IDEA FOR WHAT THEY SHOULD SAY. If I did, of course I would make them talk.****

**-Catfriend3000  
><strong>


	6. Chapter 6: Reading Gideon Cahill part 2

**A/N: Yay! The sixth chapter and the second reading one. Making the commentary for the characters is harder than it looks. I'm not sure if it true for all the books, but it is for this one. I like challenges though, so it doesn't bug me.**

**Pages: 3-8  
><strong>

**Once again- I D-O-N'-T O-W-N A T-H-I-N-G  
><strong>

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><p>Chapter 6:<p>

No one got up early, willing. No one at first woke up because of the Co-Kabra's complains. Not to one of Ned and Ted's morning prank on their sister. Nor to Nellie's singing. Or Saladin's 'Mrrp's

No one got up for _any _of these reason. Apparently, they all slept to 9:30, which by most of their standers was late, and that was the time when the breakfast crates fall. Eisenhower, Alistair, and Jonah were the first to hear it crash and wake. Amy, Reagan, and Ian got up next. Natalie got up after and started to whine something about peasants ruining her beauty sleep. Nellie, Dan, the Starling triplets, and the rest of the Holts got up because Natalie's whining.

Everybody had a quick meal; not wanting put the reading off.

"Yo! So which one of cha wants to read now?" Jonah said picking up the book.

A dead silence came over the room. Though they did want to read the book, they didn't want to see anyone die. Because the book was historical true they didn't want to see/hear that more innocent people died because of the Cahills.

"I guess I'll go," Nellie gave in since no one was really saying anything.

**Gideon was dressed in his usual peasant clothes-quite unbecoming for a man of his talents.**

"Well would you look at that Cobra. The original Cahill didn't even wear fancy clothes," Dan mocked.

Both the Kabra rolled their eyes and ignored him.

**His hair was a swirl of wild gray tufts like a bank of storm clouds. His rugged face darkened from years of brewing mixtures in a smoky laboratory. Chemicals had turned his frock into a palette of stains, and his forearms were covered with notes in Latin-reminders that Gideon would write on himself when he couldn't be bothered to find a piece of parchment. **

**Only Gideon's gold ring-**

"The ring!" Dan yelped a little too loud.

"What ring?" almost everyone asked.

"This," Amy pointed to her watch, "is the ring. We went a watchmaker after we found the ring to make into a watch."

_And after almost getting killed twice times_, Dan thought.

**-a family heirloom much too fine for a peasant, marked hem as a man of worth. And his eyes – still fierce and bright as ever under bush gray brows.**

**Those eyes had first caught Damien's attention decade ago, when Gideon Cahill stood up at the Christmas feast, at Damien's own table, and dared to correct him on a point of astronomy, citing some new work by a scientist name Copernicus.**

"Who?" Jonah asked who was clueless.

"He was an astronomer. He was also mathematician, physician, quadrilingual polyglot, classical scholar, translator, artist, Catholic cleric, jurist, governor, military leader, diplomat and economist. With all those things he had many responsibility, but he choose astronomy as a living," Alistair explained.

"Just like Franklin. So many personalities and jobs," Dan joked.

**Damien was not use to being corrected. He might have had Gideon flogged for his rudeness, but the intelligent gleam in Gideon's eyes gave him a pause. **

**He remembered thinking: **_**Here is a man I could use. Not a sheep. A man of intellect.**_

"Is that a compliment? Or an insult?" Dan asked, somewhat sarcastically

**After the feast, the two of them had talked into the night, discussing learned subject no one else in Vesper's miserable backwater domain could hope to understand. It had been the beginning of a rare friendship.**

"And a deadly one," Nellie said.

**True, that friendship had frayed since the Cahills and Vesper and his house hold had fled to this island together. Sometimes weeks would go by as Gideon secluded himself in his lab, only sending notes to Vesper's manor when he need supplies or money. If not for the Cahills' housekeeper, Maria, Damien would've been intolerably ignorant of Gideon's activities, but Maria was an imperfect spy at best.**

"You would think that Vesper would killed anyone who-" Ted started

"-didn't do a good job," Ned finished

**The last time Damien had been startled-even concerned-by how much his friend had aged. Poor, noble Gideon **

"Does he actually mean like that?" Madison asked.

"Probably not. He probably only cares for his brains," Reagan replied.

"Which you Dolts lack," Natalie mumbled loud enough Ian to hear. He elbowed her in the chest.

**who took the plague so personally and labored like Hercules to find a cure. He had looked no better than one of Vesper's serfs, broken form years of hard fieldwork.**

**But now...just as the housekeeper had reported, something about Gideon Cahill had changed drastically. Gideon stood straighter. His shoulder seemed broader. Was his hair actually darker? It seemed impossible, but Gideon Cahill seemed healthier, younger.**

"He must taken the serum," Dan said.

"Well, duh," Sinead sarcastically said.

_**He's made something in that evil laboratory of his, m'lord,**_** Maria had whispered nervously. **_**Sick for a while, he was.**_

"Is that a side-effect the serum has?" Amy asked.

"We could find out," Dan said, still hoping to get to make the serum.

"NO!" both Nellie and Amy yelled.

_**But now he's changed-turned stronger, quicker, even his earring is uncanny! I heard him talking to himself about a formula, a concoction. He's taken to witchcraft, I fear. M'lord, it's not natural, the things I seen him do! **_

**Damien did not believe in witchcraft, but Maria's tone had been sufficiently alarming to get his attention. She's spied on the Cahills' household for him for years but never once come to him in such a state of panic. Now, seeing Gideon in person, Damien's suspicions deepened. **

"**My dear Gideon." Damien clasped his friend's calloused hands. "Come, you must see my new acquisition!"**

**Gideon scanned the room warily before stepping inside. Damien felt a twinge of annoyance. Another change in the past few months: Gideon seemed increasingly mistrustful, **_**actively**_** avoiding Damien's company.**

"Reasonable," a few people mumbled that word or said something similar.

**Damien couldn't abide the idea that Gideon might be hiding something.**

**He cloaked his anger with a broad smile and shepherded his friend into the study until Gideon stood just beneath the new mosaic crest on the ceiling.**

"Bad idea," Ian said referring back to his earlier statement about the mosaic. Though it didn't officially said what was going to happen.

"**You see?" Damien leaned over his desk and spread out half a dozen charcoal sketches. "These are only quick studies, of course. But my agent in Florence tells me this artist, Leonardo, is a master and quite an inventor of mechanicals devices- which, as you know, are my passion. Leonardo just competed a portrait of Lisa del Giocondo. **

"The Mona Lisa," half of the people called out.

**He calls it the**_** Mona Lisa**_**. I thought I might commission him to do a portrait of me, and while he's here, I can pick his mind for mechanical secrets. How might that sound?"**

"**Expensive," Gideon murmured.**

**Vesper chuckled. Gideon was never easy to impress, which just made Damien more determined to impress him- even if today might be the last.**

"I think the cobra boy might have a point," Jonah said.

**He pushed aside the Leonardo sketches. "Perhaps you're right. But surely you must admit this was worth the price."**

**Damien gestured grandly at his new wall map- a series of twelve woodblock panels showing the entire globe brightly painted in blue and green. "The newest, most accurate map **_**anywhere**_**, Gideon. It's an exact replica of one just commissioned in the duchy of Lorraine. Fellow named Waldseemüller created it. What do you notice?"**

**Gideon's keen eyes studied the map for no more than a heartbeat. "The new continents. He has labeled them...America?"**

"**Yes, after that explorer Amerigo Vespucci. Seems a silly name to me, but no matter. Our world has officially expanded, Gideon! Think of all the lands to conquer**

"A Lucian indeed. He sounds like an 'all talk Napoleon'," Dan grumbled.

"Would you all shut up so I can finish a _page_ without getting interrupted," Nellie said or yelled.

**All those kingdoms of savages with riches beyond imagining. Spain is already becoming wealthy, you know, bring back shiploads of gold and silver. I tell you, if a man had enough power, he could set himself up as an emperor in the New Would. It could as easily be called Vesperia, eh?"**

_Well isn't someone full of himself,_ Hamilton thought.

Nellie glared at him, while others nodded. Apparently Hamilton said his thought out loud.

"I agree," Natalie said.

"You're really not one to talk, Kabra," Ted, Ned,and Dan said simultaneously.

**Gideon frowned. "It seems to me, Damien, that we have enough trouble caring for the lands we already have. Forty-three more of our villager died this week, you know. We must find a cure to the Black Death, and I doubt the answer lies in this... America."**

"So how did the Black death end then?" Dan asked.

"There was a fire that burned most of London in 1666. After that people built the building out of bricks and stones. Keeping rats and fleas out of people's houses," Amy gave the small lecture.

**Again, Damien kept his annoyance in check. Gideon was the one who would dare speak so boldly to him. In years past, Vespers had found his honestly refreshing. He even allowed Gideon to call him by his given name.**

**But now Damien wondered if he'd allowed Gideon too much familiarity.**

_**Our**_** villagers? These lands belonged to the Vesper along. **

"If he's talking about the island, doesn't the island belong to the Cahills?" Madison asked again.

"I believe that's right," Alistair said.

"Gasp. A dolt got a fact right," Natalie mocked.

The rest of the Holts glared at Natalie. Madison punched Natalie, like she threaten she do last night.

After Madison got her revenge, Nellie continued.

**And when had his friend become so narrow-minded? Vesper showed him the new continents full of thousands of would-be subjects- a world to be conquered- and Gideon was concerned about forty-three plague-ridden peasants. **

"Obviously, Gideon isn't a heartless, cold, coward," Amy said in a hushed ton, only to be heard by Dan.

"**Well," Damien said breezily, "a cure would be admirable, of course, which is why I've provide you quite a substantial amount of funding. How goes your research?"**

**There it was again: that slight hesitation. Gideon was definitely hiding something. The look in his eyes was almost**_** fear.**_** And yet physically he seemed so full of energy, standing tall and straight. He fairly **_**radiated**_** health.**

_**A formula, a concoction**_**, the housekeeper had said. Interesting...**

"**It goes slowly," Gideon said at last. "The mercury is too poisonous. The iron solute does not balance the humors of the body as I'd hoped."**

"If Damien supplied Gideon with all the ingredients, than how come the Vespers still don't know the serum? He would have to order the stuff from someone and have to write a letter to that person. He could have easily looked up every letter he written?" Amy reasoned

"Maybe it was after Gideon died and finished the master serum, that Damien realized that it was important," Alistair guessed.

**He looked up as if just noticing the mosaic crest above him. "More new artwork?**

**Damien ignored the question, though he was conscious of the trap's release button built into the floor, just a few inches from his left boot. If things went wrong, Gideon was in the perfect position.**

"I think I'm starting to agree with the Kabra," Hamilton said as if he had said the most forbidden words ever.

"**Perhaps if you use live subjects," Damien suggested, "human volunteers, as I proposed-"**

"**No, Damien."**

"**We have more than enough to spare. And it would speed your work." **

"He's as heartless as Isabel. In fact maybe even worst," Mary-Todd groaned**(not sure if that the right word or even it's in character for her. I just needed to include her somehow).**

"Well Mr. McIntyre did say that 'the Vesper make Isabel look like Mother Teresa'," Amy quoted.

"That too true," Dan said remembering Switzerland.

"Going back to the book," Nellie said.

"**Never"**

**Damin persed his lips. After all this years, Gideon Cahill still mystified him. So dedicated to finding a cure, and yet he refused to do the logical thing and experiment on peasants. Unless, of course, he had already tested the cure some other way...**

"Can we take a break?" Natalie whined.

"Yea-" Ned started.

"Can we?" Ted finished.

"I'm getting hungry," even Dan whined.

"I guess we could take a break," Alistair said.

Cheers came from almost all the kids except, Amy, Jonah, and Ian.

Dan dashed for the other crate that was dropped off earlier. Amy, Sinead, and Alistair went back to their books they started last night. Nellie turned her iPod to her brain damaging level. Ian and Natalie went to play a game of chess. Jonah started to write a new song that no one was allowed to see. The Holts did some exercise to keep in shape. Ned and Ted went back to the computers to try and hack into the Ekat database for information about the Vesper attacks.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I needed someway to end this Chp. And I'm assuming that people wouldn't like if I just stop with '****some other way...' and that's the end of it.**

**So their all taking a break. Oh next Chp is another reading chapter too.**

**And a few chapter ahead I have the Cahills making a bet(well not everyone is in it)(just so far Dan, Hamilton, Jonah, Ian and Natalie, and the Starlings). I need ideas of what the losers should do for the winners. Oh and I should have win. I think I should have Hamilton or Jonah win, but you can tell me what you think.  
><strong>

**-Catfriend3000  
><strong>


	7. Chapter 7: Reading Gideon Cahill part 3

**A/N: The seventh chapter. Honesty I'm surprise I made this far without stopping. So before you even know what this chapter is like, I apologize about the ending. I'll post Chapter 8 soon after I post this one.**

** Pages: 8-16 making this the longest reading chapter so far.**

**You probably already know what I'm going to say here: I don't own one piece of the book "Vesper Rising"  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Chapter 7:<p>

"STORY TIME! PEOPLE!" Hamilton yelled to get everyone's attention.

They didn't really take _short_ break. Amy looked at the clock on the wall when they started the break. It read 10:15. By the time Hamilton called, 'story time' was about, 11:30.

Everyone slowly made their way to the table.

"Sop whops reding ow?" Dan asked with a mouth full of popcorn.

"Repeat please, Daniel," Natalie demanded.

Dan swallowed, "It's Dan, and I said 'Who's reading now?'"

"I'll read," Ned said.

"**Then you have no breakthrough?" Damien asked.**

**Gideon hesitated. "I have found no cure."**

"**Ah. But you've found something."**

**Gideon twisted his gold ring. "My lord?"**

_**So no he addresses me correctly**_**, Damien thought.**

"**I've known you for ten years, my friend," Damien said. "You area man of many talents, but deception is not among them. You are a poor lair. You found something important, using **_**my**_** fortune, using equipment and ingredients that **_**I**_** have provided from the far corners of the globe, using the refuge island as **_**my**_** territory."**

"He talks as if he's the one who deserves the credit," Amy said.

"**This island is Cahill family land, my lord," Gideon corrected, "granted to us centuries ago by the Gaelic kings.**

"I was right!" Madison yelped.

**We invited you here, gave you the use of this manor house-"**

"**Yes, yes." Damien waved aside the technicalities. "But it is still in **_**my **_**barony, and you owe me allegiance. At the very least, you owe me the truth. What have you found?"**

**Gideon locked eyes with him, and Damien took an involuntary step back. Gideon looked terrified, but Damien realized Gideon wasn't scared of **_**him**_**. Gideon Cahill was scared of what he discovered. **

"**I would tell you, my lord," Gideon promised, "if I had discovered anything that would do you good. And believe me, I have not."**

"Sure if you count the secret to multiply your abilities as nothing, then he's right," Dan, himself, said like it wasn't that big of a deal.

"**I see." Damien felt his pulse slowing, as it always did when he had to use force. The anticipation of violence had a calming effect on him-like a form of prayer. "That's unfortunate, my friend. I don't claim your skill with alchemy. But I do conduct my own research with mechanics, as you know. Unlike you, I have no problem testing my inventions on a live subject. Let me demonstrate."**

**Damien stepped on the release switch, and the ceiling above Gideon collapsed.**

**It was one of Damien's simpler creation-**

"Simple? A giant mosaic on a ceiling, that's really a trap, is a simple?" Nellie asked in disbelief.

**but still impressive. The attic above the Vesper seal held three limestone columns set a hand's breath apart, each as thick and heavy as a ship's mast yet perfectly balanced, so that only the slightest linchpin was needed to keep them in position. At the flick of a switch, gears turned, an iron rod retraced, and the Vesper seal crumbled. The columns crashed down like the fist of God.**

**The sound was terrible. The columns shattered. Shards or rubble flew everywhere, shaking the entire manor. Underneath the collapse, Gideon should have been smashed flat.**

"That's terrible!" both Sinead and Amy yelled.

"Should?" Ted asked.

**Yet when the dust cleared, Damien saw Gideon Cahill standing five feet behind the wreckage, unharmed except for scraped and bleeding knuckles on his right hand.**

"Awesome! He's a ninja!" Dan said jumping up and down in his seat.

_**My God**_**, Damien thought**. _**It's true.**_** Despite himself, he laughed with delight.**

**He realized his mistake too late. Gideon moved almost faster than Damien's eyes could register. In a heartbeat, he had Damien pinned to the wall, his fingers around Damien's throat. Damien was not light, but Gideon manhandled him as if he were a straw-stuffed scarecrow.**

"**You try to kill my, my lord?" Gideon's eyes flared. "Then laugh about it?"**

**For a moment, Damien was too shocked to speak. Laying hands on a noble was punishable by death, and yet Gideon- the gentle man Damien had ever met- seemed quite ready to break Damien's neck. Gideon's thumb and fingers pressed under his jaw. Damien' pulse throbbed. His vision began to darken.**

"Aww," Nellie started to whine, "it's a good thing that Gideon didn't kill him then. Without Damien we wouldn't have all the Vespers we all love," Nellie finished off sarcastically.

**With a flick of his wrist, he managed to slide a knife from his sleeve, where he always kept it.**

"**Is it- worth the price- Gideon?" Damien gasped, barely able to speak with his windpipe constricted. He pressed the tip of his knife gently against Gideon's ribs. "Think carefully."**

**Gideon's grip tightened. He eyes were full of murderous rage.**

"**We'll die together," Damien croaked. "But- won't end there. Your mother- in Milan. Your brother- in Dublin. Your wife and children..."**

"Sounds a lot like how Isabel is, or was now that she in jail. Threating someone's family like...," Reagan said not daring to finish that sentence.

**Damien watched Gideon's face as the meaning of his word sank in. It was risky, threatening an angry man, but Damien had to remind him whom his was dealing with. Damien's network of spies and assassins extended for beyond Ireland. He had many friends and many more well-paid lackeys who would take kindly to their patron's death. Gideon knew that. If he killed Damien Vesper, the entire Cahill family would be wiped for the earth.**

"Scary to think that _every_ Cahill could be wiped from the earth,_ now_," Amy mumbled to Dan.

**There was an urgent pounding on the door. Balthazar burst in, sword down. "My lord, is everything-"**

"**Stay your hand!" Damien barked. He fixed his eyes on Gideon. "Everything is fine- isn't it, Gideon? A small disagreement. Nothing more."**

"Small?" Alistair said.

**Damien counted to five, wondering if each heartbeat would be his last. Finally, Gideon's angry expression turned to disgust. He released his grip and stepped away.**

**Damien sheathed his dagger.**

**He swallowed, struggling for composure. "You see, Balthazar? Now leave us."**

**Balthazar looked at his master in disbelief, than at the gaping hole in the ceiling and the shattered ton of limestone on the floor, no doubt wondering how this constituted a small disagreement.**

"**Y-yes, my lord," he stammered. He quickly retreated, closing the door after him.**

**Gideon kicked at the rubble, scattering mosaic tiles from the Vesper crest. "I thought better of you, Damien. I thought we were friends."**

"**But we **_**are**_** friends." Damien spoke with more ease than he felt, knowing he must turn the situation quickly. "The columns were only a test that I knew you would pass. Tell me... how did you dodge them?"**

"The serum," Hamilton said.**  
><strong>

**Gideon balled his fist. "If you threaten my family again, if you lay a hand on them-"**

"**No, no, of course," Damien said hastily. "Spoken in a moment of anger! But back to the point- no man is so agile. Your bleeding knuckles... you actually **_**pushed**_** one of the stones aside?"**

"I think that came from the Tomas part of the master serum," Natalie stated.

**Gideon still looked ready to attack, but his civilized mature seemed to be reasserting itself, as Damien had hoped. Given a choice, Gideon Cahill would almost always choose talk over violence.**

"**I deflected a column," Gideon allowed, "**_**barely.**_** Or it would've crushed me."**

**Damien shook his head in wonder. "You instantly assessed how the stone was falling-it's mass. It's momentum, how best to apply force to change its course-"**

"**A simple calculation," Gideon grumbled. "You could do the math as well as I."**

"**But not so quickly," Damien said. "Not in a heartbeat. You demonstrated unnatural speed, strength, mental acuity... What has changed you, Gideon? What concoction have you made?"**

"Ekaterina," Ian said in a low tone.

**Gideon blanched. "How..." His expression hardened as the truth dawned on him. "Of course- Maria."**

"**Do not be too angry with her," Damien said. "She needed the silver. And her husband... well, he's been a guest in my dungeon for years. She really had no choice."**

"Why was her husband in a dungeon?" Reagan asked.

No one answered because they didn't even know the answer, but they did all have the same suspicions.

**Gideon brushed the dust from his shoulders. "I should have known," he said bitterly. "Even with me, you use spies."**

"**Your mind is agile," Damien said. "You have apparently found a way to increase you perception. But even this cannot change your fundamental nature, my friend. You are too rusting. You see the best in people. It is your most glaring weakness. Now tell, what secret have you uncovered?"**

"And why would someone tell someone the most important secret to a person who _just_ tried to kill him?" Madison said.

**Gideon glowered at him. "I once believed you supported because you wanted a cure for the plague- because you wanted to help your people and build a better world."**

"**I **_**do**_** want a cure," Damien assured him. "It might safeguard my own life, for one thing. It would also be a valuable thing to sell. **

"Of course, he only thinks of himself and the benefits it could bring him," Alistair murmured.

**But what you've discovered is obviously of even greater importance. As for helping the peasants out of the goodness of my heart- please! If the Black Death had taught us anything, it is that life is cheap."**

"**It teaches us life is precious!"**

"**Bah. I am not interested in stopping death, only in...directing it. This cure of yours... well, it was potentially valuable, but now you seem to have stumbled on something quite amazing-something that could help me immensely. I am interested in weapons, my friend. Power! **_**That**_** is how I'll build a better world"**

**Slowly, Gideon's face turned waxy with horror. Damien had seen that look before on the faces of his test subjects as it slowly dawned on them that they would never be leaving his workshop. "You are truly evil."**

"A statement has never been said that any truer than that one," Ted said.

"**That goes too far, Gideon. Even for you. This alchemy you've discovered, the process for strengthening the mind and body- it could give me an army powerful enough to drive the English from Ireland at last. King Henry is old and weak. His lapdogs in Dublin have been powerless for years. With your formula and the weapons I'm working on, Gideon, I could invade England itself. And after that..." He swept his hand across his newly acquired map. "A whole world awaits."**

"Again- he's like Napoleon," Dan said.

**Deadly silence. **

**Gideon wrapped his bleeding knuckles in the hem of his shirt. His hands were beginning to shake. Damien made a note of that, as he might with a test subject. Perhaps a side an effect of Gideon's formula? He would have to find out. **

"**Damien, I'm going home now, Gideon said. "I think you should return to the mainland in the morning. You are no longer welcome on my family lands."**

"You tell him!" Hamilton yelled.

"You do realize that you're talking to book, right?" Sinead asked.

"If this is a book of the past, then I'm not really talking to a book. Am I?" Hamilton reasoned.

"It still a book," Sinead retorted. Hamilton stuck his tongue at her.

**Damien felt a twinge of regret. So this is what it felt like to lose a friend. Such conversations they'd had in better times! Such excellent dinners! Peasants were easy to replace. Gideon Cahill would not be. **

"**You've known me for ten years, Gideon," he said. "Have I ever failed to get what I want?"**

"Sadly, no," Dan whispered.

"**Good-bye, Lord Vesper."**

"**Before I'm done, you'll wish those stones had crushed you," Damien warned.**

**Gideon met his eyes one last time, but his expression held no more anger-only disappointment- as if he dared to believe this break was Damien's fault.**

"Yo, isn't kinda his fault? He did make the first move," Jonah said.

**Gideon left without another word.**

**Damien cursed and overturned his desk. Secrets reports and Leonardo do Vinci sketches fluttered through the air, slowly settling in the rubble of his limestone trap**

**Damien had tried. Truly, he had tried to reasonable. But sometimes even the best plans must change. Tonight, Balthazar might get to use his sword after all.**

"Is this going to be the fire that killed Gideon?" Amy asked in a whisper, too afraid of the answer.

"I wouldn't be surprise it ends up like that," Ian said back in a low voice.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Okay so before the attempt to murder me, like I said, Chapter 8 will be posted the same day as this, late at night probably, but still the same day. **

**What with I plan, next chapter is about ****lunch ****trouble, not more reading. Sorry! But the chapter after that is about over 2,400 words so far. A little shorted then this one.**

**Oh and how I'm to split the four chapters up is going to be based on the page breaks, unless of course the numbers of pages between two page breaks is like 40 I might have to split that somehow.  
><strong>

**-Catfriend3000**


	8. Chapter 8: What are you doing here?

**A/N:Sorry! I had a dentist appointment first thing this morning so I had to go to bed earlier than I usually do. Sorry.  
><strong>

**I feel like chapter is WAY too OOC, but let's hope not(I still feel like it though). I wanted to do something different than most reading the books fanfics do(or at least different from the ones I've read). You'll have to read to find out my surprise. And you can look up the facts that I mention about a thing that will not be named. In other words, this chapter is just introducing the mystery. Nothing really interesting, SORRY! I can tell you that I check the facts on the 39 Clues website. So all the facts are right, you just have look at everything to find these kinds of fact.  
><strong>

**Anyways- on to the story(And I DON'T OWN ANYTHING)  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Chapter 8:<p>

Before anyone could say anything more on the subject Jonah spoke up.

"I'm hungry, yo," Jonah whined.

"Dude, there's a crate full of snacks over there," Hamilton pointed out.

Dan gave a weak laugh, "About that. I forgot to tell you..."

"Dan, what did you do?" Amy said going into 'big sister mode'.

"I-uh.I-kind-of-ate-all-the-snacks-while-Ned-was-reading ," Dan spoke really fast and slurring.

A pause of silence. Everyone was trying to figure out what Dan had just said.

"YOU DID WHAT!" Nellie and Amy yelled. Since they lived with Dan, they knew what he said first.

"But I saw you eating, you only had four bags, of whatever you were eating, while we were reading" Ian said, "Which by the way eating that much is disgusting."

"Well during the break we had, I kind ate most of them because I was still hungry from breakfast." Dan said sinking down in his chair trying to escape the wrath of Nellie, that for sure to come up.

"DAN! That was supposed to last us until the next crate comes!" Nellie yelled, "We don't even have any ideas for what time it comes!"

"Not cool, yo" Jonah said.

"Yea, I'm starting to get hungry too," Ned and Ted together.

"Ditto," Natalie said.

"Dan, Mr. McIntyre said not to eat them all the food," Amy said.

"Technically, he said not to _hog_ all the snacks," Dan replied trying to look innocence.

"Same thing. But there still the problem where we're all hungry, except for you, who ate all our food," Sinead said annoyed.

"Well what should we do now, since this moron, ate everything," Ian glared at Dan.

"Hey!" Dan said.

"The Kabra boy has a point," Hamilton mumbled.

"We could just wait for the food to come. It has to come for lunch. At least that's what the note says," Reagan reasoned.

"Yea 'at least'," Ned grumbled, "How do we know that food is going to come? Mr. McIntyre, could be lying and that the second crate was supposed last until dinner."

"Well in that case, if that is the case, we'll eat Daniel," Natalie said, "I mean he is the one who caused this."

"Hey!" Dan yelped, "It's not my fault-well sort of- and besides how was I supposed to know that was all we have all day. And you're all seriously going to eat me?"

"Yes," came from everyone in the room who said that they were hungry.

"Amy, Nellie stop them."

"Well it's true, kiddo. You _did_ eat all the food," Nellie said.

Before Amy could say anything, the front door opened. And a familiar shape walked in.

"Don't worry Dan. No one's going to eat you. Maybe try to hit you, but not eat you," the voice said.

"Uncle Fisk!" Amy and Dan yelled in surprised.

"What are you doing here Fiske?" Nellie asked.

"Well, my meeting at the Easter Island ended yesterday morning and I flew back to Boston. I got an email from Mr. McIntyre, saying that I should come here," Fiske said.

Amy and Dan ran over to hug him-or at least Amy hugged him. Dan did run over too.

"I don't mean to ruin the reunion or rude but, who are you?" Ted asked.

"Forgive me for not introducing myself** (I can't really remember if the others know about him)**. My name is Fiske Cahill. I'm Grace's younger brother by 12 years."

"Brother!" everyone shouted, except for the Cahill siblings, Nellie, and Alistair.

The Cahill siblings looked over to Alistair who didn't react the same way everyone else did.

"You know him?" Amy and Dan asked Alistair.

"When Alistair and I were kids, he would visit Grace and me, after Bae took him in," Fiske said**(it's says it on the top secret part of card 34 that Fiske played with him)**.

"We're only a few years apart too. But honestly, I thought he died years ago." Alistair added.

At this point, everyone's jaws dropped for two reasons. One, they didn't know that Grace had a brother. Two, they would've never have guessed that he and Alistair knew each other, even if it was a long time ago.

"It seems that even now, Grace has some surprises left for us," Ian said.

"Wait. What did Alistair mean by he thought you died years ago?" Reagan questioned.

"Well..." Fiske said. He didn't really know where to start, "As a child I was terribly shy, even worse than Amy had once been. When I went off to college, I disappeared suddenly, only wanting a few people to know about me. And I became the 'Man in Black'. But after the clue hunt, Nellie and I became Amy and Dan's guardian."

"So why are you here?" Hamilton said.

"Mr. McIntyre asked me to come, to make sure that you haven't done anything each other."

A few ah's filled the room. Natalie was about to say something but, the two crates fell.

"Finally!" a few people cheered.

The Kabras, Starlings, Holts, and Jonah all ran to the crates before Dan could take a step.

The lunch was finally here, along with some snacks. There was another letter in the crate.

_Dear Clue Hunters,_

_Sorry for the delay. Usually lunch will arrive at noon. By now Fiske has probably already arrived. I sent him here just to watch and make sure that no one does anything too drastic because someone is annoying someone. And I'm plenty sure that you are all shocked to hear that Grace has a little brother. Fiske will be sleeping another room because there isn't enough room in this room for another bed. _

_Again sorry for the delay._

_-Mr. McIntyre and Madrigals_

Everyone finished their lunch in record time.

"Okay," Ian started, "just so this doesn't happen again, I think we should have someone monitor the snacks. And if someone wants something, people have to ask that person and have it next to their bed. That way no one person will eat everything," he looked a Dan, who just glared back.

"I, sadly, agree," Madison wearily said.

"What do you mean 'sadly'?" Ian asked.

"I mean what I say, cobra," Madison retorted.

"So who wants to do it?" Nellie asked.

"I think the cobra should do it. It is his idea after all," Dan said mockingly, and trying to get back at Ian.

"I second that," Madison said.

"Well, it looks like you're doing it, dear brother," Natalie said with a hint of being sarcastic.

Ian groaned and moved the crate next to his bed.

During this time, Amy was filling in Fiske about what has happened. Everything that happen in the book and what's happened with them so far.

"So who want to read now?" Alistair asked.

"I'll read," Mary-Todd spoke up.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Okay so next chapter is another reading chapter. And again, I feel like this is OOC(especially Fiske). Tell me if it and what is. I'll try to change it without changing the whole scene.**

** Did you see my differnce? I'm pretty sure that most reading the books fanfics don't include Fiske in them. Oh and I finally found a place to make Mary-Todd talk more...well sort of. At least more than before and it's something.**

**-Catfriend3000  
><strong>


	9. Chapter 9: Reading Gideon Cahill part 4

**A/N: Okay so I apologize for ALL the grammar error. Now, in past chapters, and to come. It's just that in school we never really learned about punctuations and such. Last year we were focusing on grammar but it was like nouns, verbs, pronouns, adjectives, etc... We also focused on poetry. Other years we focused on vocabulary. The time I remember we actually focused on punctuations was like in second grade, which I remember nothing of. It's probably sounds like I'm making excuses, but it's true. And besides, I'm more of a math/ science student, but I do get A's in English.**

**Anyways, with the story, this was fun to write. Making each character making a remark about the four founders. Though, it was kind of a pain to type. I kept typing the same line, losing my place, or skipping lines on the description paragraphs.  
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**Pages: 16-22  
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><p>Chapter 9:<p>

**Gideon cursed himself for a fool.**

**He was well acquainted with Damien's ruthlessness, but he still couldn't believe his old friend had tried to kill him. **

"Well that's a Vesper for you," Dan muttered

**Worse: Damien had tricked him into revealing his newfound skills. Gideon had had enough trouble keeping Damien in check the past ten years, quietly thwarting his efforts to gain power, using his influence to calm Damien's tempers and spare the peasants from what worst of his wrath. Now Gideon's new discovery had upset the balance. Far from being a gift, the serum could ruin everything.**

**Halfway across the beach, Gideon almost collapsed from a wave of nausea, worse than before. The side effects of the master serum were becoming more pronounced by the hour. **

"There's one side effect for you," Nellie pointed out to Dan.

**He held up his hand, his knuckles still bleeding. A few minutes ago, he had the strength to crush stone. The more he used his new abilities, the more he deteriorated.**

**He needed twenty-four hours more to complete his new variation of the serum. Perhaps this time the balance of humors would be correct, and Gideon could counteract the damage he'd done to his body... if he **_**had**_** twenty-four hours.**

"The fire is what stopped him," Reagan whispered.

**Why couldn't Damien have waited another day before confronting him?**

**As the nausea passed, Gideon took a deep breath and tried to clear his thoughts. The morning was unseasonably pleasant. Waves washed against the rocks. Gideon could see the mainland clearly, but he knew that from the mainland, this island would not be visible.**

**He could not stand to think that this ancestral stronghold, a refuge for generations of Cahills, might soon be his grave.**

"That's a creep thought, man," Jonah said.

**A square mile wide, the island was shaped like a cupped hand, with a palm of meadows in front and a protective curve of sheer limestone cliffs along the back like a row of fingers.**

**Despite this island's size and the heights of its cliffs, a rare combination of factors made it nearly impossible to see from a distance- a trick of the light, the way the stone and shadows mixed together, the reflective quality of the cliffs throwing back the color of the sea. Gideon's great-great grandmother Madeleine**

"There are _two_ Madeleine?" Dan asked.

"Yes. The founder of the Madrigal, Madeleine was named after Gideon's great-great grandmother or your 26 times great grandmother," Fiske answered.

**one of the last famous Celtic warrior noblewomen, had discovered this place quite by accident, and ever though her descendants had studied science for generations since, none of them quite understood the optical illusion that caused the island disappear.**

"Isn't that a good thing for the Cahills?" Natalie asked.

**Unfortunately, Gideon had shared the secret location with his former friend, Lord Vesper. At the time, it had seemed like a worthwhile risk...**

**He looked backed at Damien's beachfront manor house- not really as fine as the Vesper family castle on the mainland but still a stately home of golden limestone and oaken beams. It had once been a simpler dwelling, the original Cahill home on the island, but Vesper had wasted no time remodeling. He'd added a boathouse, servants' quarters, a storehouse, and a smithy. Small boats waited at the dock for the baron's pleasure. Mysterious shipments arrived as the tides allowed, making Gideon uneasy.**

"I think anyone would be uneasy seeing mysterious shipments being made on your island," Ned said.

**He turned toward the back of the island-toward home. Nestled at the base of the island's cliffs stood the present Cahill manor, a simple but solid two-story oaken structure built by Gideon's grandfather. It had house three generations of Cahills. At present it sheltered everything Gideon held dear- his wife, Olivia, his children, his alchemy lab, his research.**

**A simple footpath, less than a mile long, separated the Cahills from their neighbor Lord Vesper, but the path was overgrown with weeds. **

"Didn't they have gardeners?" Natalie asked with disgust.

"The Cahill didn't start rich," Madison said. "And beside not every Cahill is rich."

"No comments on that," Dan and Hamilton said at the same time to the Kabras before they could make a remark.

**Every time Gideon walked the distance, it seemed farther. Each time, he found it harder to pretend his friendship with the man he once admired.**

**Gideon tugged at his gold ring- a memento from his only trip abroad, many years ago, to visit his dying father in Milan. Damien believed the ring was a family heirloom. In a way, it was. Gideon's father had given it to him on his deathbed. But Gideon doubted even his father, a true genius, had understood just how terrible the ring's secret was.**

"Page break," Mary-Todd announced.

**Twenty-four hours...Gideon legs began to shake. He must try to finish the new variation of the serum. And he had larger priorities as well: protecting his family, protecting the secret formula. But convincing Olivia and the children would be as hard as outwitting Damien Vesper. He took a deep breath and headed home.**

"Another page break," Mary-Todd said.

**The dining table was in the garden. **

Everyone knew what table Gideon was talking about.

**For weeks, Olivia had been grumbling about the need to clean it. Apparently, she'd taken advantage of the sunny morning to do the job. She'd drafted the children to help. Gideon stopped at the edge of the apple orchard and watched, cherishing the sight of his family and dreading what he had to tell them.**

_This is their last time as a family,_ Amy thought to herself.

**Luke and Thomas must've carried the massive table outside. Their clothes were soaked in sweat.**

Natalie, Ian, and Jonah looked disgusted, for they never really lifted a finger to do anything.

**Luke-one never for manual labor- winced as he picked a splinter from his palm. **

"Funny how things don't change over the years," Sinead remarked.

Ian and Natalie glared at her.

**He was the tallest and oldest of their children-twenty-three now, a man full grown, as he never tried to reminding them. Most young men his age would've been married with families of their own by now, but Luke was not one for domestic bliss. He gripped constantly about the sacrifices he'd made, coming home from his study at Oxford to help his parents, be truth be told, he hadn't didn't do so well at university. People outside the family tended to find him... unsettling. **

"Not just outside the family," Dan said looked innocently at the Kabra siblings.

**He had Olivia's raven hair and Gideon's furrowed brow and preoccupied scowl. His frame was long and wiry, rather snakelike**

"Too true," Amy mumbled.

**and in fact when he annoyed his siblings (which was often) the called him "the last snake in Ireland." Gideon chided the younger siblings when they said such things, but as much as he loved his elder son, he couldn't help agreeing there was a disquieting quality to him. He tended to creep into places where he should not be, silent and cold-eyed, always watching, ready to strike if attacked. **

**His younger son, Thomas, was built more like a barrel maker of a barrel itself- stout, squat, and solid. **

The Holts looked happy that their ancestor was like them or that they looked like their ancestor rather.

**Gideon had little doubt Thomas could've carried the dining table by himself, though it weighed several hundred pounds and was a good eight feet long. **

"No doubt indeed," Ned said under his breath.

**Thomas was only thirteen, but he'd beaten grown men at arm wrestling and once in a fit rage had broken down a door with his head. **

"Ha! I could do that now," Madison bragged.

**His siblings jokes that this had addled his wits, but Gideon did not agree. Thomas spoke rarely, and he might not be the quickest thinker, but he **_**did**_** think. Given time, he could work out almost any problem. **

"Well I can work a computer," Hamilton pointed his thumb to himself.

**At the moment, he was staring with distaste at a wad of oily rags his mother had given to him.**

"**Go on, then," Olivia commanded. "Luke, you, too. The table won't polish itself. And girls, for goodness' sake! Jane, come over here. Katherine, what are you doing?"**

**The girls were distracted as usual. Jane, the youngest at ten years old, **

"She was ten?" Nellie asked. "And she still ran away from home?"

**was chasing a butterfly through the chrysanthemums. Quite late in the autumn for butterflies, Gideon thought, but leave it to Jane to find one.**

"Leave it to the Janus to find a high quality piece of art too," Jonah boast about his branch.

**She was a wisp of a girl with long straw-colored hair and eyes that seemed to drink everything they saw. Her hand and dress were stained with paints. Gideon had to smile at that, as she shared his habit of writing notes and sketches everywhere, even on her arms and clothes.**

**Katherine, at fifteen, was different story. She'd plopped herself down cross-legged in the cabbage patch and was fiddle with the centerpiece from the dining table- a bronze astrological globe Gideon's father had sent them from Italy years ago. As always, Katherine wore a frock and breeches like a boy. Her dark hair was cut short. She was busily disassembling the globe, her fingers working at the joints and hinges. **

"And leave it to the Ekats to discovered how something works," Ned said.

**Perhaps Gideon should've been angry, seeing a family heirloom destroyed **

"I would be," Alistair said.

**but in truth he was surprised that it lasted this long. Katherine took apart everything, and Gideon understood. He'd been the same way at her age.**

**He stepped out from the shadows of the apple orchard, and Olivia noticed him first. As always, he caught he breath when their eyes met.**

"Ah, it would be nice to find someone like to love like that," Nellie said looking up. And everyone looked at her like she was crazy. Well everyone except Amy, Dan, and Fiske.

"Yea, but the last guy you liked tried to steal the Sakhet from us in Egypt," Dan shot back at Nellie, causing her to shoot daggers at him.

No one, except Amy, knew what they were talking about, let alone of how to respond to what Nellie said. Mary-Todd just continued from where she left off.

**No matter that they'd been married twenty-five years. She was as beautiful and formidable as ever- her long curly hair still black as midnight, her green eyes still piercing. Gideon often reflected that the children got their best quality from Olivia. She saw value and beauty in even the smallest things, like Jane. **

Jonah face looked like it was saying, "Janus rule".

**She could fix nearly anything, like Katherine. **

The Starlings and Alistair looked like they were saying, "We can fix anything and build anything".

**If her family was threatened, she could be as dangerous as a coiled viper, like Luke. **

Ian and Natalie could be like that, but maybe for different reasons.

**And like Thomas, she was strong willed and stubborn enough to break down any door- although she didn't need to use her head. **

The Holts-or one of them- had already commented on that.

**One of her stern looks was usually quite sufficient.**

**She blew a strand of hair from her face and set her hands on her hips. "Well, Gideon Cahill. If you're done chatting with His Lordship, perhaps you'll help me with the unruly mob."**

"Unruly mob!" Eisenhower yelled(sort of).

"**Papa!" Jane beamed, holding up her cupped hands, in which she caught the butterfly. "Look what I found! May I paint its wings?"**

"**No, child." Gideon tried to repress a smile. "It would hurt the poor creature."**

**Jane pouted. "But I can make him more colorful."**

**Katherine snorted, glancing up for her disassembled heirloom. "Don't be silly Jane. You and your 'art' will destroy the world."**

"I agree, art will destroy the world," Ned said.

"**Will not! And I'm not sill, am I, Luke?"**

**Gideon found it strange how much Jane adored her oldest brother, but then again, she could see the smallest good in even the most unlikely places. **

The Kabra and Jonah looked at each other. There was no way that the Jonah was ever going to adored the Kabras like Jane did to Luke. And vice-versa for the Kabras to Jonah.

**Despite his look of utter distasted for being here, in the bright sunlight, doing physical labor with his family- Luke managed a dismissive shake of the head. "No, Jane, dear. Your art, at least, never left something valuable in pieces."**

**Katherine's ears turned read. "I'll put it back together!"**

"**Like you did with the miller wheel last year?" Luke asked. "We had no flour for a month."**

"It's better than a Lucian could ever do," Ted said, making Ian and Natalie glare at him.

**Thomas stepped towards him, pushing up his sleeves. He might've been ten years younger than Luke, but that had never stopped Thomas from a fight. "Leave her alone, Luke."**

The Holts kids and the Starlings did the same the as the Kabras and Jonah. There was no way that a Holt would defend a Starling like that. And vice versa for the Starlings.

"**Stop it!" Olivia ordered. "I won't have this at the dinner table."**

**It was absurd comment, and the dinner table was in the garden, but the children became quiet. They were used to their mother's cardinal rule: no fighting at the table. This was their neutral ground, their only place of peace.**

"I wonder were our only peace of peace is," Dan said looking at his sister. They still fought with each other every day. Amy just ignored his comment.

"**Now," Olivia continued, "we need to get this table cleaned. And no more fighting." She looked at Gideon for support.**

"**Your mother is right," he said. "But first... gather 'round children. I have something important to tell you."**

"Wanna bet what Gideon is going to say?" Dan asked.

"No bets," Amy pleaded, but no one heard her.

"Sure, I'm in," Hamilton said.

"I'm in, yo," Jonah said.

"Why not. It could be fun to see your reaction when we win," Ian bragged. Natalie nodded while he was talking.

"The three of us will join too," Sinead spoke for all three Starlings.

"You can all write your bets on a piece of paper and hand them to me," Nellie said. Apparently she was the judge of this bet. "And the losers have to serve the winner or winners for the next two days we're here."

Everyone else, Madison, Mary-Todd, Reagan, Eisenhower, Alistair, Amy, and Fiske, stayed out of in.

"And the rest can be judges too if needed," Madison added. Apparently now, everyone was involved.

Each one/ team, wrote their bet:

Dan- What happened at the Vesper place.

Hamilton- About his work.

Jonah- His work, for sure.

The Kabras-The ring.

The Starlings- The serum and the clues.

Everyone handed Nellie their papers. Nellie nodded her head when she read this these guesses. She showed everyone else. They did the same thing as Nellie.

"Now back to the story," Amy said impatiently. "Who want to read next?"

"Well, one person from each branch has read once now, except the Lucian branch," Reagan said looking over at the Kabras, the only Lucians here.

A few minutes of silence before one of the Kabras spoke up, "I'll do it," Natalie reluctantly said.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Okay so it's kind of obvious who's going to serve whom for the next two days, if you read the book before. I was debating on whether or not to say their bets.**

** I plan to type the whole book, then do the characters commentaries, then publish it. But I'm probably going to do updates every once and a while. Hopefully. Right now I'm like at the fifth page of **Madeleine Cahill's story(they don't have page numbers on this part).**  
><strong>

**-Catfriend3000**

**P.S: I don't own anything.  
><strong>


	10. Chapter 10: Reading Gideon Cahill part 5

**A/N: Okay so I've been planing this fanfic for a long while now, but this chapter is kind of not what I expect it to be like. Either in a good or bad way, I don't want you call it. In my Microsoft Word, this chapter is like 10 pages. I think the chapter is like 7 pages without the commentary.**

**About the bet, I wanted to making more interesting than just one group of people winning(I won't say who if you haven't read the book yet) so I tried to make it more fun. I feel like there's not enough commentary compared to my other chapters and that the ending is weird. But whatever, I'll be surprise if people actually read my rants...  
><strong>

** ON WITH THE STORY/READING!  
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**Pages: 23-35  
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* * *

><p>Chapter 10:<p>

Natalie looked down the page to see if their(her and Ian) guess was right. When she got to the middle of the page she was interrupted.

"Read!" Dan shouted.

Natalie rolled her eyes and started.

**His tone must've been graver than he realized, because none of them argued. Jane let the butterfly go. Katherine set down the globe. The boys stepped away from each other warily. All of them approached the table, instinctively arranging themselves at their usual spots for dinner.**

"Hey, Amy. How come we don't have usual spots for dinner?" Dan asked with a teasing tone in his voice.

"Why do you care? You would just complain about them every day if Fiske and me were to do make them," Nellie answered.

"And you would try to change them too," Amy added.

"What do you mean 'Fiske and me'," Dan asked Nellie.

"Well _we _are your guardians."

Fiske didn't say anything but, nodded his head at everything was being said to Dan.

"Can I get back to reading!" Natalie shouted.

"**Husband?" Olivia knitted her brow. "What is it?"**

"**Children," Gideon said. "There may be some trouble ahead. You know of my alchemy work, my search to the cure the Black Death."**

"**Does one of us have the plague?" Thomas asked with alarm.**

**Jane tilted her head quizzically. "No, I'd have notice that. The complexion changes, the color of eyes. Have you found the cure father?"**

"How is a ten year talking like this?" Nellie said again, remembering what she was like at age ten.

"**No, it's something different," Luke guessed. "He's found something more important."**

**Gideon stared at his elder son. "How do you know this?"**

**Luke shifted his feet. "Just a speculation. I simply-"**

"**He was sneaking around last night," Katherine grumbled. "I saw him come out of you laboratory, Father. He's **_**always**_** sneaking around."**

"Like a snake," Madison said.

"**Lair!" Luke snarled.**

**Thomas grabbed for his brother, but Gideon shouted, "Stop! All of you!"**

**He tried to control the tremor in his voice. "Luke, you cannot enter my laboratory. It's wrong and it's dangerous. But that's not the most important issues at present. You've guess correctly. I found something- something I need your help with. All of you."**

"Now we get to see who's right and who's going to be serving who for next few days," Natalie stopped reading to brag.

**He reached under the edge of the dinner table and found the secret lever. The latch released, and four small drawers sprang open- one at each setting where his children normally sat.**

"**Father!" Katherine said with glee. She ignored the contents of the drawer, even though it glowed with a faint green light. Instead, she examined the drawer itself. "A pressure lock? A concealed trigger? This is brilliant!"**

"Typical Ekat," Ian said.

**Jane gingerly picked up her own package- a parcel the size of a folded dress, wrapped in velvet, tied in twine. Tucked under the twine was a glass vial with a cork and a leather strap. Jane picked up the vial. Even in the bright sunlight, the liquid inside glowed, staining her fingers emerald green.**

Natalie turned the book to everyone, to reveal a picture of a vial.**  
><strong>

"The Janus serum!" Hamilton, Ian, Amy, and Dan shouted. They were on Mount Everest when the serum fell.

"So far it looks like the Starlings are right," Alistair said looking at the papers. "They wrote the serum."

"**It's beautiful," she murmured.**

"**Be careful, my dear," Gideon said. "That is your future."**

"**Husband!" Olivia warned. "This is too dangerous. You promised-"**

"**I promised only as a last resort, Olivia. Believe me, if there was any other was-"**

"**Father, what is **_**this**_**?" Luke demanded. He held up his own parcel, similar to Jane's.**

"That would be the Lucians' then," Maison said.

**Thomas held up his gift as well, a bulkier bag of objects tied with a leather cord. His glass vial looked tiny and fragile in his massive hands.**

"Tomas," Sinead simply said.

"**It's glowing," he announced.**

**Gideon ran his trembling hands along the scarred surface of their dinner table. He has a terrible suspicion this would be the last time they were here together. He saw the gouge Thomas knife had made last Easter.**

"What do you think happened?" Jonah questioned.

**He saw the red stain burned into the table for the time had mixed herbs, wine and rare chemicals stolen from the lab to make his own "plague cure" when he was ten.**

"He must've been so cute and _non_-_deadly_ at that _peaceful_ time," Dan said looking innocently as possible.

**In another corner, Katherine had craved something that looked like a dragon. Gideon still remembered the conversation: **_**My dear, there are no such things as dragons.**_** She had looked up defiantly. **_**There should be, Perhaps I will build on some day.**_

"So _that's_ why you guys have the only mythical creature," Natalie said looking at the Starlings and Alistair.

**Even young Jane had been quick to leave her mark. Her place at the table had been preciously scarred from generations of Cahills, but she filled in those scars with various paints-as if colors could heal- and created a web of beautiful lines.**

"Of course a Janus would do something like that," Ted said.

**Around this table, Olivia and Gideon had celebrated the birth of each of their children. To think that they might never be together again... he swallowed and braced himself for what he must do.**

"**Children, I need your help. We are in great danger. As you well know, I've worked many years attempting for find a cure for the plague. At first, I sought a way to kill the contagion. Then it occurred to me that perhaps the answer was instead to strengthen the body. If a man could be made more resilient, healthier, stronger in mind, body, and spirit, then perhaps the Black Death could not touch him. My approach had...unexpected consequences."**

"Now he's talking about his work," Amy stated looking at the pieces of papers. "Jonah and Hamilton both wrote that,"

**Katherine held up her vial with new interest. "Serum of some kind? To strengthen the receiver?"**

**Gideon glanced at Olivia. Her eyes were full of warning, but it was too late to turn back now.**

"**I discovered the formula by accident," he said. "In its combined form... it is very potent."**

**Jane's eyes widened. "You took it! You experimented on yourself. Last month when you were sick, it wasn't illness, was it?"**

"I thought that Janus were supposed to into art not, the ability to read people," Ian smirked at Jonah.

"Well, we are great at noticing details too, man," Jonah replied.

**Gideon shook his head. "I was terribly foolish, Jane. It almost killed me and-" He stopped himself before he could complete his thought: **_**and it still might. **_**"But when I rose from my bed, I found I had changed. I was stronger. More agile. My mind had greater capacity for numbers. My memory increased a hundredfold."**

"A hundredfold?" Dan asked.

"It means something time a hundred," Amy said fast.

"**Excellent." Luke hefted the vial, a greedy light in his eyes. "And this is the serum? How can we be in danger, Father, if you are giving us such power?"**

"**I am **_**not**_** giving you such power," Gideon said. "What you are holding is not the complete serum. That is... not perfect yet."**

_**As in fatal**_**, Gideon thought bitterly, but he tried to keep his tone even. **

"**I am still working on the final variation of the formula," he said, "but for now the master serum is far too dangerous, especially if it were to fall into the wrong hands."**

"**Like Luke's," Thomas grumbled.**

A few snickers went around the room. Natalie and Ian glared at everyone who laughed.

"**Shut up, oaf!" Luke snapped.**

"**Children!" Gideon said. "Lord Vesper has guessed about the serum. He will stop at nothing to get it, and he cannot be allowed to have. We have very little time."**

"Would that count as talking about what happened at Vesper's place? Because that's what Dan wrote," Reagan asked.

"I guess. I would count it as half right," Alistair said.

"Same," Nellie agreed.

**Jane frowned. "But Lord Vesper is your friend."**

"**Foolish little sister," Katherine said. "His Lordship is no one's friend. He tolerates people as long as they are useful. And Father is very useful."**

**It was bitter to hear this from a girl of fifteen- bitter to think she had such a cynical view.**

"**Sadly, Katherine is right," he said. "Damien-Lord Vesper- has become too power hungry."**

"Well, we did say a power hungry Lucian," Ned and Ted interrupted the reading.

"**He cannot be trusted or kept at bay any longer. Your mother and I feared this might happen, which is I have divided my research. Each of you must guard you treasures I have given you- ingredients, tools, pieces of the formula. Your individual portions are not meant to make sense. I have intentionally obscured the means to re-create the complete formula. But taken together, reassembled properly with all thirty-nine ingredients. Until we escape Lord Vesper's reach-"**

"The Starlings also said the clues, which were called ingredients then," Fiske said.

"So far," Nellie started. "The Starlings, Jonah, Hamilton, and half of Dan's guesses are right."

"So then that leaves the Kabras," Reagan said.

"The Kabras have to serve the Starlings, Jonah and Hamilton for two days. Dan for a day," Nellie said like she was a game show host.

"And Dan has to serve the Starlings, Jonah, and Hamilton for a day," Madison added.

Natalie looked like she was going to throw the book at Nellie and Madison.

"Can we discuss this later?" Amy announced. She didn't want to go through a Kabra tantrum.

"**Wait," Thomas said. "What are these glowing vials?"**

**Gideon hesitated. His work was so complex few adults could understand it, much less children. But looking around at his family, he knew he owned them complete honesty. More than that, he realized with fierce pride that all of them **_**could**_** understand. As different as they were, his children were all brilliant in their own ways. All of them at **_**least**_** as bright as he was.**

"That's kind of saying a lot for kids," Hamilton mumbled.

"**Each vial holds an incomplete version of the serum," he explained. "Thinking of you children- how different you are and yet how gifted- is what inspired me to try the four-part approach. While the master serum is still imperfect, far too dangerous to take, the four strands separately are safe enough."**

"What made the master serum so deadly exactly then?" Dan asked.

"**Together, your four vials would re-create the master serum, but in an emergency, children- you might have use your individual serums to give you strength, according to your natural talents."**

"**Give us the **_**master**_** serum," Luke said. "You took the risk and lived! Together, we would be unstoppable. We could overcome Lord Vesper easily."**

**Gideon shivered. His son's tone reminded him too much of Damien's. **

"Maybe he's not a Cahill. Maybe he's Damien son," Madison joked.

**He could not tell Luke just how dearly his rash decision to try the serum had cost him. The new outbreak of the plague had given Gideon a sense of urgency, made him disregard caution and rush his research.**

_**If I can save more lives**_** he though, **_**it will be worth the risk**_**.**

**Now he was paying the price.**

"**No, Luke," he insisted. "As I told you, the master serum is much too dangerous. It is far too tempting for anyone."**

"I know someone who's tempted to take the serum," Amy said looking at Dan.

"Give you three guesses who that is," Nellie joined in.

"**Except for you," Luke said.**

"**Luke!" Olivia chided. "You father is trying to save our family was well as his work."**

"**But he doesn't trust us with his secrets," Luke said. "You've put us in danger. You want our help. You owe us the full power of your serum."**

"Demanding much?" Madison said.

**Gideon could see the other children tensing, watching this battle of will. They had never seen Luke rebel so brazenly, but Gideon couldn't feel anger, only sorrow. Luke was suspicious grasping perhaps a little too much like Lord Vesper- but if so, it was because Gideon had not been there for him. He had been so absorbed in his work he hadn't been a proper father.**

**He's children might be brilliant, but they were still children, even Luke. They were already scared. Gideon had to stay confident for them, he couldn't tell them about the unintended consequences of the master serum. Unless he has twenty-four hours to complete the next variation...**

"**Of course," he agreed. "Children, I have complete faith in you. Working together, the four of you will do more than I ever could do alone."**

"If that were the case," Ian started, "imagine a world without all the Cahills' fights."

"The world wouldn't be right," Madison declared.

"**You will perfect the serum and make sure it is used only for good. When the time is right, and you are far away from her, you can pool your resources and-" **

"**Where are we going?" Katherine interrupted. "And why are you talking as if you aren't coming with us?"**

"Didn't Katherine go to Egypt?" Amy asked, still not quite sure of some of the Cahill history.

"That what it looked like in the tombs," Dan supplied. "And Thomas went to Japan."

"Luke went to England," Ian added.

"Then where did Jane go?" Reagan wondered and looked over to Jonah.

"I think she left for London," Jonah said.

**Gideon forced a smile. "Of course I will come with you. But I want you all to get safely away first. Thomas, are the boats still in the cave?"**

**Thomas nodded, clearly mystified. Since the time of Madeleine, who discovered the island, all Cahills had been natural mariners. They learned to swim and navigate as soon as they could walk.**

"We learned all about the Cahill history by the time we could walk," Ian bragged.

"Not all," Amy grumbled, referring to Madeleine.

**The family kept three small boats on the side of the island, ostensibly for fishing and amusement, but Gideon always felt better knowing they had a private escape route far from Lord Vesper's docks.**

"Smart move," Dan said.

"**Tonight," he said, "you will pack your things. Bring only essentials that you can easily carry- and of course the serum I have given you, well hidden in your bags. I will secure the laboratory to make sure none of my research falls into Vesper's hands."**

"**You mean you'll **_**destroy**_** the research?" Luke asked incredulously.**

"**Listen!" Gideon insisted. "We must not give any sign that we are fleeing. We will cook dinner as usual and spend the night so Lord Vesper does not grow suspicious."**

"And since when do the villains go according to the good guys plans," Nellie said.

"**But why not leave now?" Jane asked.**

**Gideon glanced toward the house. In the widow of the upped bedroom, the housekeeper Maria's face hovered like a pale ghost, watching. **

"Creepy," Reagan mumbled.

**She would not leave until nightfall, when she would return to her cottage near Lord Vesper's house. Five years she's been with the Cahills... five years on Damien's payroll of spies.**

"**We cannot give Lord Vesper any reason to suspect we are fleeing," he repeated. "His guards on the island are more than capable of stopping us. And on the mainland...his reach is long indeed. We must get as far away as possible before he discovers our plan."**

"**Just before dawn, then," Thomas said. "That's the next time the tides will allow us to leave safety, at any rate."**

"You know, he's pretty smart, for a Tomas I mean," Natalie said sarcastically.

**Gideon nodded, grateful for Thomas's practicality.**

**He didn't add the last reason he needed more time. He had to continue his last attempt to perfect the serum. He might not succeed, but he had to try. And that meant he would have to stay longer than his family.**

"**In the morning, then," he said, "just before first light, you will make your way to the boats and head to the mainland. I will stay behind and buy you as much time as I can. At my first opportunity, I will make some excuse to visit the mainland, then meet you on the road to Cork. By the time Vesper discovers we're gone, we'll be far beyond his reach."**

"What about the fire?" Amy asked.

"Well like Nellie said, since when do the villains go according to the good guys plan," Dan said like he was the one with the brain.

"**But what if it doesn't work?" Jane's voice quavered. "What if Lord Vesper won't let you go? What if Lord Vesper stops us and searches us?"**

"**It will work, my dear." Gideon tried to sound reassuring. "I'm giving you the element of the formula for a reason. Even if he found you, Vesper would probably never think to search you. He has no children and does not approve of children. I don't think it would ever occur to him that you might hold something of value."**

**No one argued this point. In all the years Vesper had been their family "friend," he never seemed to remember the children's name. To him, they were like cats- of some limited value, to be tolerated but not worth noticing, much less naming.**

Saladin looked like he was insulted. Dan petted his head, "That's not true. You're an awesome feline-ninja. You did save us from that trap Bae set after all."

"Trap?" Alistair asked.

"We kind of broke into an Ekat stronghold in Egypt and Bae found us and trapped us until we told you where you were," Amy explained. "I don't think he believed you were dead at that time."

**Olivia rested her hand on his arm. "Yes, husband. We'll do as you say. Won't we children?"**

**They all nodded, though none of them looked comfortable with this plan, even Olivia.**

"**I can say no more for now," Gideon insisted. "Go to your rooms. Be prepared to leave but, for God's sake, children, be careful. Do not pack until Maria leaves for the evening. Do not say or do anything to make her suspicious."**

"**But why?" Jane asked.**

**He cleared his throat. "Maria...Maria would worry if she knew. Now go. And guard these packages with you lives."**

**To his relief, the children obeyed. Nervously, they clutched their newfound treasures and headed for the house in a group- looking for once like they had an untied purpose. **

"The one and only time," Hamilton said.

**Olivia turned toward him once they were alone. "Gideon I don't like this plan."**

"**We agreed-"**

"**And I will support you, but there **_**must **_**be another way." She rubbed her stomach as if it had begun to hurt. "There are... there are factors we haven't discussed."**

"Madeleine," Amy, Dan, Nellie, and Fiske whispered.

**Something in her voice troubled him "What do you mean?"**

"**I just..." Whatever she was going to say, she apparently changed her mind. "We can't simply leave this island for Vesper to take. It's our home. It's been your **_**family's**_** home for generations. And the ring. I know you said never to speak of it, but-"**

"**I will send it with you to the mainland," Gideon promised, though the idea chilled his blood. Olivia was the only person he'd told about the ring's terrible secret, but asking her to carry that burden seemed unconscionably risky. **

"It's risky for Amy to wear now," Nellie said referring to Amy's watch.

"**You have to take the children away," he said. "Vesper will never stop. Even with my new strength, I can't fight an entire barony. Out best hope is to get far away from him and convince him that my research went up into flames so it's beyond his reach forever."**

"**But your research is in your **_**head**_**, Gideon. How will you get away-"**

**Gideon leaned forward and kissed his wife. She smelled wholesome things: sunlight and clean wool, fresh baked bread and rose petals. He had not told her just how sick he was. It was all he could do to stay of his feet, to control the trembling in his limbs. Even if he finished the serum, he doubted it would be in time. His heart was near breaking, but he managed a smile. "Trust me, sweetheart. We will all be together again."**

**Before he could lose his nerve, he turned and walked toward the house, where his laboratory waited.**

"Okay so back to the bet," Nellie said. "The Starlings, Hamilton, and Jonah all were right."

"Dan is half right," Reagan added.

"So that's means that Dan will serve the others for a day. While the Kabras have to serve everyone else in the bet for two days and Dan for a day," Nellie tried to hide her laughs in between each word.

"This is going to be a fun next two days," Madison also tried to hide her laughs.

"WHAT? A KABRA NEVER LOSES! I REFUSE TO SERVE THESE PEASANTS!" Natalie screeched.

"Natalie, calm down. It's not going to be that bad, right?" Amy said looking at the Starlings, Hamilton, Jonah, and Dan. Especially Dan.

"Hey, a bet is a bet. They lose and we won. And beside it the least they deserve after what they put us through," Dan said.

"Hey, you loss too, you know," Hamilton remarked. Dan scowled.

"I'm just happy I don't have to serve those two," Ned said pointing to Natalie and Ian.

"Same," his sister agreed.

Natalie was about to say(or scream) something, but didn't get to. "We should continue reading now," Alistair said, not wanting this to go any farther and cause a big fight.

"I'll read," Amy said pulling the book out of Natalie's clutches.

Before Natalie could saying anything else about the matter, Amy started to read.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So I don't know if you would count all the winners 'winners', but I wanted to make it interesting than just the Starlings winning. And if you're confused about Dan's part it's: Dan's was half right because Gideon didn't talk about all about what happened at Damien's, but did mention a little. So like for the first day, he'll be _serving_ the Starlings, Hamilton, and Jonah. Then the next he'll be _served_ by Natalie and Ian.**

**Sorry if anything from the part where Dan's talking to Saladin is OOC or if the information is wrong. I haven't read the fourth book in a while or the eighth.**

** And no promises when the next chapter is going to be posted. It could be from tomorrow to next month. Though it's probably not the latter, knowing myself I like to stay on task and that I'm working on the next chapter now. But there's something called writer's block and I currently have that.  
><strong>

**-Catfriend3000  
><strong>


	11. Chapter 11: Reading Gideon Cahill part 6

**A/N: I'm sorry if this chapter and the next is a little over-dramatic. I couldn't think of anything to write and it's not my favorite part of Gideon's story . I was also watching Ouran High School Host Club while writing this and the show is happy and carefree. While this part of the story is sad.**

**Pages: 35-43  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Chapter 11:<p>

**It was near midnight when Gideon realized he would not live to see the dawn.**

No one said anything, they all knew what happened.

**He'd spent the entire day collecting his equipment, accounting for every scrap of research.**

"Imagine how much paper he used," Amy mumbled.

**He'd kept out only the essential beakers and distillation equipment for the final iteration of the serum. Every so often he'd turn and watch the drops of fluid traveling through the glass tubes with painful slowness. He wished he could speed up the process, but there was simply no way.**

**In the meantime, he had prepared his last line of defense. He'd mixed niter, coal, and sulfur, pitch and acid- using all his alchemical training and his newfound quickness to create one final, deadly compound. Now sealed in vats of explosive were placed around the laboratory, strung together with fuse wire of gun-power-coated rope. On the table, his oil lamp burned with a low blue flame. A windup timepiece turned gears that held the end of the fuse, bringing it ever closer to the fire.**

"He's creating a time-delayed explosive!" Ted said.

"So he set his own house on fire?" Madison questioned.

**In the morning, Gideon would visit Damien's manor again. Hopefully, the serum would be done by then, and Gideon would be healthier, ready to take on his old friend. He would try to keep Damien engaged in negotiations for at least an hour- enough time for his family to of get a head start on the mainland. Eventually, Damien would grow impatient and demand to see Gideon lab. Gideon would stall as long as possible the reluctantly agree. If his timing proved correct, they would be almost to the laboratory when the time-delayed fuse ignited. Twenty explosive vats would erupt simultaneously, turning the house into an inferno, reducing this lab to a mound of ashes. There would be nothing left for Damien to find.**

"That's a pretty good plan," Natalie admitted.

"Gasp. Is cobra complementing someone other than herself?" Dan said pretending to be in shock.

Natalie glared at him. "The name's Kabra, Daniel."

"And my name is Dan!"

**Perhaps Gideon could escape somehow later on, bide his time pretending to work for Vesper. He could find a way to reunite with his family eventually. Or if not...he would do whatever he must do to keep Damien from getting the serum.**

_**And the ring**_**. Gideon cursed himself. He'd forgotten to give Olivia the ring, which was almost as important, almost as dangerous as the master serum.**

"What's the big deal about this ring?" Madison asked bluntly.

"Honestly, we don't really know. We just know to keep out of the Vesper's hands," Fiske answered.

**He'd explained its secrets to Olivia long ago and warned her that Damien Vesper should never possess it. She'd argued many times that the ring shouldn't be kept under Lord Vesper's nose, but Gideon felt like he had no choice. He couldn't let something so dangerous out of his sight. Gideon had told Olivia to downplay the ring's significance should Damien ever ask about it.**

_**Tell him it has sentimental value,**_** he suggested. **_**Perhaps an heirloom from you family, which you gave to me as a token of our marriage.**_

"Like Vesper would ever get married, and I doubt that anyone would possibly want to get married to him," Dan scoffed.

Amy rolled her eyes.

**Now he would have to give her the ring and hope could take it to safety.**

**Gideon looked around one more time, taking stock of the place where he'd worked so many years. The laboratory took up half of the house's ground floor, but it might as well have been a separate building. A small side door led into the house proper, though Gideon usually came and went through the back exit, which led straight to the meadow. While Olivia and Maria kept the rest of the house well-scrubbed and tidy, they were not allowed in the lab. For safety, Gideon forbade anyone but himself to enter. He kept the doors looked, thank goodness. If Maria had had a key for the lab, she might've given Lord Vesper **_**much**_** more information.**

"The world would be in chaos if the Vespers started with more information then they originally did," Ian said.

**The lab's oak-beamed ceiling was low and blackened from years of smoke. Shelves of chemicals and racks of tools covered every bit of wall space. The waist-high worktables were cluttered with bowls and vials, and the room had no chairs.**

"How many times do you think he caused an explosion?" Hamilton asked.

"I would love to have a laboratory!" Dan squealed.

"Why?" Sinead asked. "You don't invent anything."

"But I do love to make explosions. And a laboratory is perfect for that."

Amy rolled her eyes again. Nellie snorted.

**Gideon never sat while he worked. His spirit was too restless. He would pace between projects, checking on several boiling cats at once. Olivia often teased him that he cooked six times more than she did and still couldn't make a decent stew.**

A few laughs went around the room.

**He was about to reset the timepiece, douse the oil burner, and close up the lab when a voice spoke behind him: "Father."**

**Luke had slipped through the interior doorway, which should have been impossible.**

"Of course, he's able to sneak in," Reagan said.

**Somehow, he'd managed to undo Gideon's foolproof bolt system. Now he stood there full dressed, looking agitated.**

"**Luke?" Gideon managed. "What are you-"**

"**They coming, Father!"**

"Wanna do another bet of who's coming?" Dan asked with eyes like light bulbs.

"No bet," came from Amy, Natalie, Reagan, and Fiske.

"And it's pretty easy to guess who it is," Ian said.

"**What do you mean? Why aren't you in bed?"**

**Luke waved the question aside, "Couldn't sleep, of course. They're **_**coming**_**! Vesper and his men. You have to..." Luke glanced around the laboratory. He noticed the sealed container, the fuses, the timepiece and the burner, and with unnerving quickness he seemed to understand his father's plan.**

"**A time-delay explosion," Luke said in amazement.**

"Called it," Ted bragged.

"**You'll destroy the house, the formula- everything. But there's no time for that now! The enemy is almost-"**

**A fist pounded on the lab's exterior door.**

"Perfect timing," Hamilton said sarcastically.

**Gideon's heart crawled into his throat. His enhanced senses should've registered the danger earlier, but the same serum that had made him formidable was now betraying him, making his mind go fuzzy. Of course he should've realized: Lord Vesper had scented his prey. He wouldn't wait until morning. He would strike while Gideon was still unprepared.**

"Well that's what predators do to their prey," Nellie said.

"**Luke, get out of here," Gideon ordered. "Wake up the others and sneak away **_**now**_**."**

"**Give me the full serum!" Luke pleaded. "I can help you fight!"**

_**He's already taken his fourth of the serum,**_** Gideon realized. That explained how se sneaked past he security measures so easily. It explained the swift new cleverness in his eyes- how he picked out details in a dark room and immediately reconstructed his father's plan.**

"He's pretty smart, I give you that," Ned said towards the Kabras.

**Luke had always been impetuous, taking the serum? An unforgivable risk.**

**Still, at the moment Gideon was glad for his son's recklessness. It might allow him to save the rest of the family.**

**The exterior door shook again under the pounding of metal-clad fists.**

"Their fists were made of metal?" Dan asked.

"No, it means that they were probably wearing metal. For like a knight outfit or something," Amy said.

"**Luke, listen to me." Gideon grasped his shoulders. "Even together, we cannot defeat Vesper and all his men. He has assassins everywhere. I **_**know**_** what I'm talking about. Your only hope is to leave now. Wake the family and get out!"**

"**But the others won't trust me!" **

"Well how can we trust a cobra," Dan smirked towards Ian and Natalie.

**Luke said. "They never do. And how will you get away?"**

**Gideon didn't answer.**

**Luke's face paled. Gideon could see comprehension dawning on him. "Father, the master serum... you said it was too dangerous. You meant **_**fatal**_**, didn't you? You're dying..."**

"I wonder," Reagan said aloud, "if the fire hadn't kill Gideon, would he have died from the serum naturally or would he died of old age?"

"**You must protect the family now"**

"**But-"**

"**Go, Luke."**

**The door rattle and the hinges creaked.**

"**I love you, Father," Luke said, his voice wavering. Then he slipped inside.**

**Gideon barred the door and reset the bolts. He could hear Luke moving heavy furniture to blockade the other side.**

**Then the exterior door shattered, and two of Vesper's guard stepped into the laboratory.**

"Where's Vesper himself?" Ned asked somewhat sarcastically.

**They were both dressed in steel and leather brigandine armor. Vesper's lieutenant, Balthazar, stood at the right, his sword unsheathed.**

"So that's what he meant by he might get use his sword after all," Madison said.

**On the left stood the baron's executioner and strong-arm enforcer, who went by the name of Craven, though it did not fit his appearance. His eyes were a frightening milky white, and his arms were as thick as fence post. His battle-ax was flecked with splinter from breaking down the door. **

"These sound like pleasant men to meet," Nellie sarcastically said.

**Lord Vesper himself stepped through next, dressed in black robes and chain mail.**

"Chain mail?" Jonah, the Holts, and Dan asked.

"It's a kind of armor. You've most likely seen a knight wear it," Alistair said.

**Damien was older than Gideon by at least five years, but he had hint of gray hair, nor a wrinkle. The commoners swore Lord Vesper had made a deal with the devil to stay young. **

"I wouldn't be surprise if that were the case," Sinead said under her breath.

**If Gideon had been superstitious, he might have agreed. The lord's curly black mane, handsome face, and dark, hungry eyes had not changed in a decade.**

"That's kind of creep," Jonah said.

"**Good evening, Gideon." Damien tugged off his gloves and scanned the lab. His eyes fixed on the nearest worktable, where Gideon distillation was in progress and his text neatly stacked, "Thank you for compiling you research for us. It makes things much easier. And that would be the mysterious concoction? Excellent. Balthazar, if you please..."**

**Before the lieutenant could step forward, Gideon grabbed the end of the fuse wire. He held it within an inch of the burner's flame.**

"He wants to blow up the house?" the Starlings yelped.

"Well we know how the fire started," Natalie said. "And it wasn't the Lucians."

"For the first time," Amy whispered only to be heard by Dan and Nellie.

"**Come any closer," he warned, "and you all die."**

**Balthazar snorted and started to advance.**

"**Wait," Lord Vesper commanded.**

**Damien's keen eyes examined the scene more closely- the incendiary charges, the wires connecting them, the timepiece and burner.**

"He really does like mechanics if he could figure it out that fast," Ned said.

**Only Gideon's own daughter Katherine could've rivaled Damien for mechanical genius. The baron's lips curled into a dry smile as he appreciated the trap Gideon had created.**

"Now _that's_ creepy to see a guy like him smile," Hamilton said.

**Balthazar waited uneasily, no doubt wondering why he was being held at bay by a crazy old alchemist with a piece of rope.**

"Crazy?" Nellie asked almost half laughing.

**Damien tutted with disappointment. "Really, Gideon, are you willing to destroy yourself, your family, and your precious research? Would you sacrifice everything you've worked for just to thwart me? There is no need for that."**

"**I can't let you have the formula, Damien. It will die with me."**

"I would probably do the same thing," Hamilton said.

**Damien tried to read his face. Gideon had seen him so this with so many people over the years. No one in his right mind would gamble with Lord Vesper and certainly not try to bluff him. Gideon was not bluffing, but Vesper would have trouble believing that. Self-sacrifice was a foreign concept to the baron.**

"Of course it is," Dan said.

"**Work with me," Vesper said. "We can bother benefit. When I am the most powerful man in the world, you will have every resource at your disposal for you projects. You can eradicate the Black Death, as you've always dreamed."**

"**And see the world crushed under your boots? No thank you."**

"This guy reminds me of Isabel in too many ways," Amy whispered.

"**Your family...I can keep them safe, Gideon. But if you oppose-"**

"**Do not threaten them again," Gideon growled "They know nothing of my work, and I'll never let you use them as hostage to my cooperation. I would rather die."**

"**I do not believe you," Vesper said coldly. "We will take your research. Step aside, and we'll spare you."**

_**He's lying**_**, Gideon realized, Damien had come the same conclusion as he: They were archenemies. **

"Obviously," Ted murmured.

**One of them must die. If the lab was intact, Damien was more than capable of understanding the serum notes. He had no need of Gideon. He would simply take what he wanted.**

**What ever happened, Gideon was doomed. Even if he survived this night, he would never have time to perfect the master serum. The flawed mixture in his veins was already destroying him. The only thing left was to make his death count- to buy his family a chance at survival and to thwart Damien Vesper's plans.**

**He prayed that Luke had gotten the family safely out of the house. If they could make it to the boats, they had a chance. Someday, they might be able to reconstruct his research and finish the master serum.**

"Again, we could make the serum and take," Dan said with a puppy-dog face.

"No!" Nellie, Fiske, and Amy said at the same time.

**So many things undone, so many possibilities crushed. Gideon would not see his children again in this life, not would he be able to give the ring to Olivia. He could only hope that the ring was buried with him, and his family lived. **

"Well they did live," Reagan started, "but I don't think the way they lived is what he wanted."

"**I have wasted enough time with you," Vesper snarled. I will wait outside. Balthazar, Craven, I will count to sixty. At the end of that time, I expect Gideon Cahill at my feet-dead or alive, I don't care which. And do not let him damage **_**anything**_** in this laboratory."**

**Vesper swept out of the room.**

"He knows what's going to happen," Ian said.

**Balthazar and Craven both stepped forward. **

"**Do not," Gideon warned them. "Vesper left because he knows you may die. Leave now. I have no wish to kill you."**

"Called it," Ian said under his breath.

**Craven made a grunting sound like a pig-possibly his way of laughing. Balthazar sneered and raised his sword.**

_**I'm sorry Olivia,**_** Gideon thought. **_**God protect my family.**_

**Gideon thrust the fuse into the burner. Lines of fire raced through the dark laboratory, and the world exploded around him.**

"That's horrible!" most of the girls in the room screamed.

"Continue, Natalie," Alistair said. His face didn't really show any emotions.

Natalie slowly nodded her head.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I don't really know how to end this part, honestly. It's a really bad ending .****Sorry!**

**I don't know if I'm making some people talk too much or too little.  
><strong>

**One more thing- Do you think the next chapter should be a reading or a break chapter? If it's a break, I thought of mentioning the bet and having Ian and Natalie serving the people who won the bet.**

**-Catfriend3000**


	12. Chapter 12: Reading Gideon Cahill part 7

**A/N:YEAH! My story has have over 500 viewers! That probably doesn't sound like a lot, but to me it pretty good for under two weeks or so.  
><strong>

**Honestly, I don't know if the note makes much sense, but I figured that I should put it in, that way I don't have to write a big fight. I never really been in a fight, so I really wouldn't have any ideas of what to write.**

**Pages: 43-48  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Chapter 12:<p>

"Uh," Natalie said. "There's a note here."

_Dear Clue Hunters,_

_These next few pages don't tell the happiest times of the first Cahills. In fact, the next few pages record a terrible time and how the Cahills spit up. The Cahills didn't say or do such nice things to each other. Please don't let what came in between of your ancestors, come in between of you now. This is a thing of a past; please do not get into a big fight about who's right and who's wrong. This is mostly in perspective of one person. Please remember that and that some of the other Cahills thought differently during the time._

_Please refrain from threatening people and the attempt of murder. And of course try not to get into a big fight._

_-Mr. __McIntyre and Madrigals_

"They must've done something drastic to make Mr. McIntyre send a letter like that," Amy said.

"All I know is that Jane left with Luke, and that Katherine and Thomas left together, running away from Luke," Alistair said.

"Anyways, does anyone want to read," Natalie said, hoping to force someone to read like she was.

"I will," Sinead said.

**Luke almost believed that they would make it.**

"Almost?" Ian asked.

**He'd managed to rouse his mother and siblings from their sleep and herd them from the house,**

"Herd?" Ted said almost half laughing. "He makes them sound like a bunch of sheeps."

**telling them that Father had order them not to wait for him. Luke's tone was so insistent, so earnest, that no even his mother hesitated.**

**They'd followed Luke towards the cave, stumbling along in the dark, clutching their parcels of secrets and whatever other bags they could easily carry.**

**Halfway to the boats, they heard the explosion. **

"Again that's terrible," Sinead said.

**They all turned, their faces suddenly awash in red light from the distant fireball. Mother let out a sob of horror.**

"**Keep going!" Luke shouted. His heart was as heavy as iron. He knew exactly what happened, but he could not let father's sacrifice be in vain. He **_**had**_** to save his family.**

"So the Luke was trying to protect the family," Amy said in a low voice.

"**Father!" Katherine screamed.**

**She dropped her bags and ran for the house, but Luke grabbed her arm. "Stop it!" he cried. "You can't help him!"**

**Mother was already running. Thomas- the stupid oaf- shoved Luke aside, and he and Katherine raced after her.**

**Only Jane stood still, staring at the distant flames as if trying to understand who had painted them. "Luke...wh-where is Papa?"**

"That must be hard on a ten year old to see that," Jonah said.

"It's hard on anyone," Dan whispered. Jonah looked at him confused and then got what he meant.

**At that moment, Luke felt ten years old himself. He wanted to weep. He wanted to scream in rage and frustration. But he had no choice. He had to be the adult now.**

"**It will be all right." He took Jane's hand. "I'll protect you. But first come. We must help the others." Together, they followed their family back towards the house. **

**The fire was so intense for them to get close. White-hot flames danced across the timber and ate through the walls like cocoon silk. Thomas had tried to charge in, but Katherine and Olivia pulled him back.**

"**We must get help!" Katherine screamed. "Thomas run to Lord Vesper."**

"That would have to be the worst suggestion I've heard from an Ekat," Ian said, making the Starlings and Alistair glare at him. Alistair's glare was softer than the Starlings'.

"**No!" Luke said. "Vesper was **_**here**_**, Katherine. This is his doing!"**

**Mother fell to her knees and wept. Jane hid under the dining table, which was still sat in the garden. She hugged one of the table legs as if it were the mast of an unsteady ship.**

"I'm picturing this and it isn't a good one," Nellie said.

**Thomas stormed toward Luke. His face was blackened with soot, and his tear made red lines down his cheeks like ancient Celtic war paint. He may have been only thirteen, but the look in his eyes made Luke take a step back. Luke hated himself for felling afraid, but his younger brother had always intimidated him.**

"I don't really blame him. It sounds like he was scary," Amy said.

"**You're lying!" Thomas yelled. "You got us out of the house. You knew this would happen!"**

"**No, I-I suspected," Luke said, "but Father's orders-"**

**Thomas pushed him to the ground. "We could've helped him! You led us away and let Father die! Perhaps **_**you**_** started the fire!"**

"This is probably where the big fight begins," Natalie stated.

**Luke felt as if the flames were inside him now, eating through his skin, consuming him with anger. The ringing in his ear, which started as soon as he took his portion of the serum, became louder.**

"**I saved your life, you fool!" he snarled. "Father was dying anyway! Don't you see that? The master serum made him sick. He was trying to keep Lord Vesper from taking our secrets. He died to give you time to escape. And now you stand here arguing with me when you should be running! You aren't even smart enough to save!"**

"Well, Mr. McIntyre did say that they didn't say nice things to each other_," _Ted said.

**Thomas charged, but this time Luke was ready. His little brother seemed to move in slow motion. Luke could not match his strength, but he used Thomas' momentum against him. He raised his feet, planted them on Thomas' chest, and rolled backward, sending Thomas flying over him and crashing into the dining table.**

"**Stop it!" Mother screamed.**

**Jane started crying. Katherine covered her ears and stared at her brothers in shock.**

"That's TERRIBLE!" Amy yelped.

"You do know you're talking to a book, right sis?" Dan said.

"It's still terrible," Nellie replied for Amy, who was glaring at her brother.

**Thomas was crumpled against the table. Luke stalked over, turned him on his back, and placed his elbow against his brother's throat.**

"Mr. McIntyre also said that they didn't do such nice things," Ian said looking over at Amy's face, which was terrified.

"**I am **_**done**_** with you!" Luke bellowed.**

**All his rage boiled to the surface: the teasing he'd endured from the villagers for years, the jeering from his fellow students at Oxford, the suspicious looks from his own family. No one ever trusted him. He's always been the odd man out, the strange, quiet child with the shifty eyes. Now he tried to do the right thing. He's obeyed his father, spoken from his heart, and tried to save his miserable family. And they blamed him for the disaster! **

**Thomas eyes bulged. He choked, grasping weakly for Luke's face, but Luke was too slippery for him to grab.**

"Well, at least we know that he didn't kill him," Dan said.

_**That's right, **_**Luke thought. **_**You call me a snake? I'll prove I'm just as dangerous!**_

"**Stop it!" Jane shrieked. Luke realized she was pummeling him with her tiny fists. "Stop it, Luke!"**

**Stunned, he released Thomas and stepped away. Katherine rushed to his aid. Their mother simply stared in horror.**

Amy was doing the same thing as Olivia was probably doing at that time. No one made fun of her being scared because they were a little scared too. Sinead slowed down the reading.

**For a long while, no one spoke. There was no sound except the roar of the fire. Luke stared at his hands, suddenly overcame with shame and self-loathing. He had almost killed his brother. Was this because of the serum, or had this evil been inside him all along?**

**He looked at his family's terrified expressions, and he realized something more important than the house had been destroyed tonight. Their trust, their love- whatever mutual bond had held them together around this dinner table for so many years- had died along with their father.**

**The flowers had darkened, the vegetable garden smoldered, and their family home collapsed in a roar of white heat.**

"**It was Vesper," Luke said stubbornly, though he knew it wouldn't matter.**

"I don't believe I'm saying this but, I wished that they would listen to him," Dan said. "That way none of this war would happen."

"If did happen, Dan, then we all probably wouldn't be here today," Alistair said as calm as ever.

Nellie wondered how he could be so calm. She figured that he's just like that on the outside; inside he's probably shaking.

**Thomas rubbed his throat. His eyes still looked too large for their sockets. He had said nothing, but Luke read his expression perfectly: **_**Your fault. All your fault.**_

**This time, Luke controlled himself. The serum was working its way through his body, slowly enhancing his senses, his understanding. He could see five or six moves ahead, as if the world had become a chess game. He knew anger wouldn't serve him now. He might as well argue with the flames as argue with Thomas. He needed to withdraw, find a safe haven, study his father's research. He could not stay here. And he certainly couldn't trust Thomas or Katherine.**

"**I tried to save you all," he said. "I tried to obey Father's orders. None of you would listen. So I'm going."**

"**Going?" Jane looked on the verge of tears again. Luke resolved weakened. He couldn't stand to see his sister in pain, but he also couldn't travel the world with a ten-year-old girl in tow.**

"**Perhaps we'll see each other again, Jane," he said half-heartedly. "Mother will look after you..."**

**His voice trailed off****. One look at Mother's face told him she was in no condition to tend to anyone, even herself. Luke had seen this look too often on the plague survivors throughout Ireland and England. He had seen the hollow-eyed women who had lost their entire families, their entire villages. Olivia Cahill might as well be a ghost herself.**

**He met Thomas' and Katherine's eyes one last time and they silently agreed on one thing: their mutual hatred.**

"Really so then, the feud was between the Lucians and Tomas and Ekats," Madison said. "What about the Janus?"

Almost everybody shrugged. No one knew the answer.

"**Good-bye, then," Luke said. He turned and walked into the darkness.**

**He heard Jane crying, calling his name. He waited for the others to call him back, to realize their mistake and beg him to stay. But they never did.**

"Wonder what would happen to this family if they did?" Nellie said.

"Now I see why the Madrigals are fixed on reuniting the family," Natalie said.

For everyone else, there was a dead silence over them. They didn't really know what to say.

"I'll read if you don't mind," Alistair said breaking the silence.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: There's probably only like 2-3 chapters left for Gideon's story. Then, I'm on Madeleine's story! The next chapter is probably going to involve the bet. I have an idea, but no big promises that's it's going to be good.**

**And I know I haven't asked this since that beginning but, please do review. It makes me happy to see that people have read this far and it's not that I'm posting this with no readers.**

**Fun riddle I found a few days ago:**

**_ Take 1000, then add 40, then add 1000, then add 30, then add 1000, then add 20, then add 1000, then add 10._  
><strong>

**See if you can answer it. I'll post the answer in the next chapter.  
><strong>

**-Catfriend3000**

**P.S: I don't own anything(as usual).  
><strong>


	13. Chapter 13: Reading Gideon Cahill part 8

**A/N: Okay so no comments on this but, I know that this story is going to go from horrible to extremely horrible. Sorry about that. The only reason I'm writing this is because it's summer and I have nothing to do. So I'm bored. No promises about this but I might redo the story(correct it, make it better(hopefully)). **

**Moving on- this is the second to last part of Gideon Cahill's story. YAY! My favorite story is probably Grace's. The character commentary might get better for Amy and Dan's story.  
><strong>

**Pages:49-52  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Chapter 13:<p>

**Olivia grieved alone.**

**In the morning light, the ruins of the house looked like a black and shattered eggshell. Smoke still burned in her lungs but her eyes were so painfully dry she could not cry.**

"That's terrible," Natalie said.

Dan would usually say something to annoy Natalie, but he knew that this wasn't the time.

**She had wrapped Gideon in a singed linen sheet, his head cradled in her lap. She stroked his hair, willing him to open his eyes, but of course he did not. By the time she found him, he had breathed his last. **

Amy looked like she about to cry.

**The flames had not killed him, but the heat and smoke had. Two other men had died in the fire. They had been badly burned, but Olivia recognized them as Vesper's guards- Balthazar and Craven. This had given her a steely anger to counter her grief and enough strength to move their bodies. Ironically, they had fallen across Gideon- perhaps to tackle him to prevent him from escaping. They had shielded Gideon's body from the worst flames. He looked remarkably peaceful. His hair was so sooty and scorched that he appeared young again- all the gray burned away.**

**Her fingers trembled as she caressed his brow. She wanted to shout at the sky. She wanted to curse Gideon for leaving her. But she wouldn't blame him, even now. She had known when she married him: His heart was too big to be constrained, He cared for her deeply, but he cared for all humanity, too. He could never give up his mission to improve the lot of the poor and sick, to the defeat the plague once and for all. He would do anything to save others. He had died- the suborn, infuriating, gentle man- because he believed it was the only way to save his work and his family.**

"Madrigals learned from the best," Dan said teasingly, hoping to lighten the mood, but no prevail.

"**Gideon," she said, trying to keep her voice from breaking. "The children are gone. I couldn't stop them."**

**Surely Gideon hadn't meant for that to happen.**

"I don't think any parent would want this kind of thing to happen to their kids," Reagan whispered.

**Shortly after Luke left, Jane had chased after him. Neither had returned. Olivia had finally shaken herself out of misery and sent Katherine to find them. A half hour later, Katherine had returned and reported that a boat was missing from the cave. Luke and Jane had apparently made good their threat and left for the mainland.**

"'Made good'?" Dan asked.

"It means that they did what they said they would do," Amy said fast and quiet. Dan didn't really hear her.

**Thomas and Katherine's grief quickly turned to anger. They blamed their father for not telling them everything, for trusting Vesper and Luke. They blamed Olivia for not stopping Gideon's madness. **

"You won't get anywhere in life if you just blame people for everything for your whole life," Nellie said.

**Luke and Jane had the right idea, they decided. It was time to leave this cursed family.**

**Their harsh words stung Olivia. She pleaded with them to stay, but Thomas and Katherine were soon gone as well. Olivia's spirit was so shattered she did not even follow. She stumbled toward the ruins of the house, hoping against hope that she you find Gideon alive. She needed his strength.**

**Now Olivia was absolutely alone. Or almost so. She hugged her barely swollen belly- praying the unborn child was still safe. **

At this point, Reagan, Amy, and Sinead were trying to hold back their tears.

**Gideon and the children hadn't known. She'd been waiting for the right moment, sensing that he stress in the family was too great to break such news. But if she'd told Gideon sooner, would he have been more carful? Would he still be alive? **

Alistair slowed down the read, looking over at everyone's faces. He was feeling the same thing, but wasn't showing it.

**A fresh wave of guilt washed over her. A fifth child on the way, and now she was a widow. Her other children had fled. She prayed they would come back when grief and anger subsided. Surely they would not leave her for good.**

Dan opened his mouth to say something but, Nellie elbowed him before he made a sound.

**But something had told her that their family had permanently shattered. More important- the future of the entire world had splintered. Together, her children might've completed their father's work. Separately, they had gone into the world with secrets powerful enough to change history. Judging from what Gideon had told her, each of them carried a serum that you fundamentally alter their chemistry, instilling greatness and talents to them and their descendants for generations to come They might become saints or monsters, kings or villains, but Olivia feared that separately, the children of the Cahills would never achieve Gideon's dreams. They would keep fighting, struggling with one another as they always done, but now their squabbles would shape the course of civilization. The world would be their battleground.**

A few people agreed in their heads.

_**We will be together again**_**, Gideon had said- a cruel last memory of her husband. She looked down at his lifeless form and clasped his fingers. His gold ring glinted, its strange rows of engraved symbols even more pronounced with soot filling to grooves.**

Alistair flipped the page, and showed everyone the picture of the ring. Amy put her hand over her watch.

**Many times she'd pleaded with Gideon to hide the ring or send it away, but he's insisted that he could only keep it safe by keeping it close. Now that burden fell to Olivia**

_**Above all, Lord Vesper must never have it,**_** Gideon once told her.**_** If he asks about it, tell him it has sentimental value. Perhaps an heirloom from you family, which you gave to me as a token of our marriage, eh? Perhaps that will keep him from demanding it. The man is like a crow. Shiny things catch his eyes.**_

A few people snickered. Sinead and Amy stopped crying and gave a weak smile.

**Olivia's eyes fixed on the golden band. Blood rushed in her ears, and she was so overwhelmed with the dread and grief that she didn't hear the approaching footsteps until Damien Vesper said, "My dear Olivia. I'm so sorry."**

"He seriously is like a crow, sweeping in all of sudden," Ned said**(Dunno if crows are actually like this, but for now they are)**.

"Kind of creep," his brother agreed.

"C-can we take a break?" Amy asked, starting to stop crying a bit.

"Yea, I'm getting a bit hungry. Can you get me a snack?" Jonah said looking at Ian.

"What?" Ian looked confused at what Jonah.

"You have all the snacks by your bed and you are supposed to be in charge of the snacks," Ned answered, smirking.

"You also lost the bet so you have to serve me, Jonah, and the Starlings for the next few days too," Hamilton said grinning.

"And me!" Dan yelped, but no one payed any mind to him.

"I am getting a little hungry, now that I think of it," Ted smirked too.

"Fine," Ian grumbled. "Natalie, can you get Jonah's food?"

Natalie was about to complain, but apparently it was a rhetorical question. Ian pushed her towards his bed. Natalie reluctantly got Jonah's snack and shoved it in to Jonah's hands.

"This is going to be fun to watch!" Madison cheered.

Natalie threw a bag of pretzels at Madison, but she caught it. "Would anyone care to read?" Madison said eating a pretzel.

"I guess, I will," Dan muttered.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Okay so I'm sure that someone else in the world could write this story a million times better than mine(which is not an exaggeration). But so far(I think) this is the like the only reading fanfic that's doing Vespers Rising.  
><strong>

**~Answer to the last riddle(or math problem is more appropriate) is 4100. Some people add 100 instead of 1000.  
><strong>

**~Here's another puzzle that involves numbers but no math skills:**

**4 is the magic number.  
><strong>

**17 is 9, and 9 is 4, and 4 is the magic number.  
><strong>

**8 is 5, and 5 is 4, and 4 is the magic number.  
><strong>

**80 is **6, and 6 is 3, and 3 is 5, and 5 is 4, and 4 is the magic number.**  
><strong>

**These are just a few examples. Find the pattern between the numbers. NO MATH SKILL REQUIRED TO FIGURE OUT THE ANSWER!**

**Good luck and sorry about the poor(or VERY poor) quality of the story.**

**-Catfriend3000  
><strong>


	14. Chapter 14: Reading Gideon Cahill part 9

**A/N: YAY! Last part of Gideon's story! Posting this before I go to bed on July 23, 2011 and it's about 2 o'clock AM here in California right now so I'm tired. Zzzzz...  
><strong>

**Not much to say really(for the first time). Except to thank PinkLemonade519 for reassuring me(read her/his(dunno which. Sorry!) review). Also I've kind of given up on Jonah's gangsta? talk. Though I do like challenges, it just made it harder for me to write Jonah talking and it was making me want to avoid him. So I have him talking like a normal(sorta) person. Sorry to those who like the gangsta talk.  
><strong>

**Pages: 52-58  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Chapter 14:<p>

**Vesper so rarely spoke to her, at first she was too astonished to respond.**

**He was dress in black velvet, with soft leather boots and a silver chain around his neck. His expression was appropriately mournful, but in his eyes were bright and greedy. **_**Like a crow**_**, Gideon had remarked.**

"Hey do you think that's the Vespers' animal?" Dan thought aloud. Everyone looked at him like he was crazy. "You know, like how the Tomas have a bear, the Janus has a wolf, the Ekats have a dragon, and the Lucians have two snakes."

"I highly doubt that the Vesper would make a crow their symbol just because Damien's former friend said like he's a crow, Daniel," Natalie said.

"It's-"

"Continue reading, Dan," Amy said, she knew where this was going.

**Vesper's hand rested on the pommel of his sword. She noticed his eye brows had been scorched clean off. Behind him stood two guards-men she'd never seen before. Already he'd replaced the two he'd lost in the fire.**

"**You demon," Olivia spat. "**_**You**_** did this. Your men are in the ruins, dead. You killed my husband."**

**Vesper's expression hardened. "I assure you, madam, I did not. As for my men, I'm sure they came here to help. I grieve as much as you do. I consider this fire a great tragedy."**

"Yeah right," Nellie snorted.

"He probably did, but not for the same reasons as Olivia," Fiske whispered to her.

**Olivia realized that he meant it but for all the wrong reasons. He cared nothing for his dead servants. He barely looked at Gideon's body. Instead, Vesper was mourning the ruins of the lab- all those valuable secrets gone.**

"**Gideon thwarted you," she said. "Whatever you were looking for, it's been destroyed. Though I suppose you'll want to pick through the ruins yourself."**

**He met her eyes. Olivia did not flinch. Vesper had a reputation for reading faces, but Olivia was an actress of great talent. She'd grown up in a family of older brothers, all of them smart and strong. She could lie as needed, and swaggering men like Lord Vesper did not scare her.**

"**You know of Gideon's research, madam?" he asked.**

"**I'm a woman," she said flatly. "What would I know such things?"**

"She makes it sounds like women don't know anything!" Sinead huffed.

"Well, this did happen in 1507, and times were different," Amy replied.

**Vesper hesitated, then nodded. Olivia marveled at how blind men could be. **

All the girls in the room snickered. And all the guys, who had sisters, just glared at them.

**Vesper might be a genius, but women and children were alien species to him. Gideon had been right. Hiding the formula with his family had made it nearly invisible to Lord Vesper.**

"**Your family is safe?" he asked, though he did not seem terribly concerned.**

"**Gone to the mainland," she said. "They could not bear the sight of these ruins. Or of **_**you**_**, my lord."**

"**Indeed? Leaving you all alone?"**

"**I'm sure they'll be back soon," she lied, "with the priest and the town elders and a good number of townsfolk. Gideon was well loved by your people."**

**Lord Vesper tensed, and Olivia knew he understood her meaning. Vesper might have many servants and allies around the world, but he was **_**not**_** well loved by his own people. If word began spreading that Vesper had a hand in Gideon's death, killing a man of the peasants believed was a saint, working to free them from the plague...**

"A riot!" Dan and Hamilton cheered. Everyone looked at them weirdly.

"**I see," Vesper backed up a step. He looked at Gideon's body, and his nose wrinkled with distaste. Then he froze. Vesper had noticed the ring.**

"**A beautiful trinket," he mused. "It looks different somehow..."**

"**A love token of my love to Gideon," Olivia said as casually as she could manage. "An heirloom of my family."**

"**Will he be buried with it?"**

**Olivia felt the moment's importance, as if she were poised on the edge of a knife. Generations of Cahills-the future of the world itself- might be shaped by what she said next and did next.**

**She tugged the ring off her husband's finger and thrust it towards Lord Vesper. "Do you want it, my lord? My wedding token to Gideon? Would you deprive me of that, too? Go on, then. Take it!"**

**Vesper's lips curled. He stepped away immediately losing interest.**

"She's like a Lucian," Ian said amused.

"I don't think she would take that as a compliment," Dan mumbled.

**As Olivia had hoped: Anything freely given couldn't be worth much to a man like Damien Vesper. And a token of love? Worse than useless. He was a predator, a hunter by nature.**

"**There is no need to search the ruins," he decided. "Nothing could have survived."**

"**Because you were here when the laboratory exploded," Olivia guessed. "You saw it yourself."**

**Vesper smiled coldly. "We'll leave you to your grief, madam."**

**Olivia eased Gideon's head off her lap. She stood, clenching her fists. "You'll do more than that, my lord. You'll leave this island, and you'll never come back."**

**The guards frowned, obviously confused. Had a ragged, soot-covered woman just order Lord Vesper to leave?**

"**This is Cahill land," Olivia and. "Given by royal charted. You are a guest here, but no longer. Leave now, my lord. I must bury my husband."**

**Vesper stared at her, his knuckles white on pommel of his sword. Olivia met his eyes and let him know that she- a woman, a grieving wife and mother- was more dangerous right now than any weapon he could ever create. She would get her way, or she would destroy him.**

"That would be awesome to see!" Hamilton cheered.

"Why?" Natalie asked.

"How is seeing a Vesper getting destroyed not awesome?" he retorted. Natalie rolled her eyes.

**One dangerous predator to another, Lord Vesper seemed to understand her. He nodded, his cold eyes boring into hers.**

"**Very well," he decided. "There is nothing left here worthy of my attention, at any rate. But, madam, I am still the lord of these lands. I will keep my eye on you and your family. If I find you have deceived me, if I come to suspect the you have hidden anything from me-"**

"**A widow and her children?" Olivia asked, feigning amazement. "How could we hid something form the eyes of Lord Vesper?"**

**Vesper wavered, perhaps catching a whiff of her sarcasm, but his pride won out. "Indeed," he muttered. "Remember me, madam. For I will remember you."**

"This dude is officially the creepiest dude I've ever heard of," Jonah declared.

**Olivia did not relax until they reached the docks in the distance. She watched as the guards began preparing the lord's boat for crossing.**

**She turned to the ruins of her family house, the burned garden, and the dining table sitting in the fields, the only part of her life left unscathed.**

**She looked down at her husband's pale face. No one would help her bury him, but she would manage. She would lay him to rest in the some graveyard where Cahills had been buried for generations.**

"I don't remember seeing Gideon's grave in the graveyard the last time we were there," Amy murmured, remembering what she saw.

**Olivia might not be ladylike, young, or beautiful. She might not warrant a second look from a man like Lord Vesper, but she was strong. She could handle a shovel as well as a dagger or a cooking fire.**

**She slipped Gideon's gold ring on her finger, though it was much too big. She would need a chain to it around her neck, she decided.**

"**I will keep it safe, Gideon," she promised. "Vesper will never have it."**

"Technically speaking, the Vesper did have the ring at one point," Fiske said.

Everyone looked at him in silence with curiosity and/or awe.

"Then how did Grace get it?" Dan and Amy asked in union.

Fiske just shrugged.

**Whatever Lord Vesper was hunting, he wouldn't succeed- not as long as Olivia Cahill drew breath. And she had a more important goal to keep her going. She must find a way to bring her children back.**

"**Someday, Gideon," she swore, "our family will sit again around this dining table. We **_**will**_** come together."**

"Most of us were under the table in the gauntlet a few weeks ago. Would that count?" Ian asked.

**She glanced up as the morning sun illuminated the cliffs. Near the top was the cave where Gideon had proposed to her, and the where Gideon's great ancestor, Madeleine the Matriarch, had surveyed the island and claimed it for her own.**

**Olivia rested her hand on her belly, thought she could not feel the child kicking yet.**

"**I will name you Madeleine," she said. "You and I will preserve this place and bring our family back together."**

**Olivia kissed her husband's golden ring. She would keep the ring a secret, next to her heart, for the rest of her life.**

**She must be strong. She needed no serum for that. She only needed her faith in her family. Someday, the Cahills would reunite. No one, not even Lord Damien Vesper, would stop her from succeeding.**

**She picked up a shovel from the garden and went to dig her husband's grave.**

"That's the end of Gideon Cahill's story," Dan announced.

"What's the next story?" Reagan asked.

"'Madeleine Cahill,'" he read. "Who wants to do the honors?"

"Eh, why not," Reagan shrugged.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Pathetic ending but, it was all I could think of. That's not really an excuse, but it's true.**

**For the second riddle: the answer was that when you spell the numbers out, however many letters were in that word was the next number:**

**Seventeen is nine, and nine is four, and four is the magic number.**

**Eight is five, and five is four, and four is the magic number.  
><strong>

**Eighty is six**, and six is three, and three is five, and five is four, and four is the magic number.****

****Cecelia S. Bradley got the answer! Congratulation! It took my forever to figure the answer when my friend asked me.  
><strong>**

**-Catfriend3000  
><strong>


	15. Chapter 15: Reading Maddy Cahill part 1

**A/N: YAY! Madeleine's story! Didn't think I get this far so soon. I take back what (I think) I said about the character commentary: it's harder for this story than Gideon's. At least they knew some facts about him, this time they're all so _clueless_. Which is kinda fun to write, but still hard. The chapter is called Maddy Cahill because it wouldn't let me do **Madeleine.**  
><strong>

**And also YAY! is that on Sunday, July 24 is the day where I got the most hits and visitors.**

**Hits: 273 Visitors: 61 **

**Maybe not much to some people but, that's a lot for me(which I'm happy that I got that many).  
><strong>

**Pages: 58-62 (Let's see 238 minus 62 is...176! 176 more pages to go! Still a long way to go, but I still have a lot more summer to do it.)  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Chapter 15:<p>

**Madeleine Cahill-1526**

**As the last student fell unconscious to his desk, Madeleine Babbitt thought about lies.**

"Unconscious?" half of the people chorused.

"Babbitt?" the other half chorused.

**She'd lived inside them all her life. Lies and secrets. Now she could shout out the truth, and on one would hear it. She smiled as she pulled a pencil from under the face of a slumped-over Flynn O'Halloran. His head thumped, echoing through the Xenophilus**

"Xeno-what?" Jonah said.

**Institute of Alchemy, a grand name for a one-room schoolhouse made of clay and dried peat.**

_**Maddy Babbitt, scared as a rabbit,**_** they called her. She had acted the part almost all of her nineteen years. To keep attention away. To keep from being noticed. She almost believed she**_** was**_** that person. The stammer and the apologies had become part of her until her bolder side nearly faded away. **_**A sleeping potion-aren't you boring enough?**_** he'd taunted. Everyone had dared her to demonstrate. So she had.**

"Well that explains the unconsciousness of the class," Ian murmured.

**And it felt wonderful.**

"**Sleep well, my friends," she said, capping a vial of amber liquid. She glanced outside, looking for Professor Xenophilus**

"What kind of name is that?" Hamilton asked in between laughs.

"Why do all the professors have such fancy names like that?" Dan asked.

Amy couldn't tell if Dan was for real or just kidding.

**who had missed class today. A pity. He was probably lost in his own laboratory work, concocting medicines and marvelous inventions.**

"**As you only sniffed the potion on a handkerchief," she continued to the silence class, "you will waken in five minutes, fizzy and refreshed. Had it entered you bloodstream directly, it would take an hour."**

"Do you think that Irina would have used that?" Dan, again, asked.

"I think she was more into lethal potions. But she might have at some point," Alistair thought out loud.

**Her stammer was gone. How liberation to speak to a stupefied audience! **

"I feel like I'm talking to a stupefied audience every time I speak to a Holt," Natalie said looking at everything and everyone except the Holts, who were glaring at her.

Amy, Dan, and Jonah were holding Hamilton from attacking Natalie.

**As she placed the vial into a pouch that hung around her neck, she felt fit to burst. Two decades of pent-ups secrets bounced around inside her like unruly puppies before an opening door. "And also," she blurted out, "my name is not Maddy Babbitt! It's Madeleine..."**

_**Say it! Go ahead.**_

**But try as she might, the name **_**Cahill**_** stuck in her throat. Her training was bone deep.**

"What training?" Dan, for the third time, asked.

"If you'd stop asking questions, you'll find out sooner," Sinead snapped.

**As sunlight poked through the clouds and into the room, a tiny windmill of black-and-white sails began to turn on a table. **

Again Dan was about to say something, but Amy and Sinead stopped him.

**There knocked a pebble down a chute, striking a hook that released a weighted pulley, which in turn raised a small spring-loaded hammer. The hammer then struck a brass gong, signifying the end of alchemy class.**

**Soon the distant tune would sound-Mother summoning her, excepting help in the apothecary. **

"What an apothecary?" Jonah, Hamilton, and Dan asked together.

"It's a place where you can buy medicine," Amy answered.

**Leaving behind the sleeper, Madeleine raced outside. She sped down a sloping path through heather and scrub. A low bank of clouds swept over the moor, casting the village of Sc****áth below in gray-green mist.**

**Madeleine looked up to the soft-ceilinged sky as she ran. She thought of her father, a man she never met. Mother claimed he had been the greatest alchemist and an even better father. She hoped that wherever he was, he was looking down and seeing the results of her alchemy training. Even more, she hoped he was proud.**

**In a moment, her shoes hit the cobblestone of town. She wove through winding alleys that echoed with the distant sound of a tin flute, piercing and sweet. This was Mother playing a tune called, "Bhaile Anois," which meant **_**home now**_**.**

"I've never heard of it," Jonah was now confused. "And I've heard almost every song written."

**It was composed by Father and had become the traditional Cahill family song of summoning.**

"Oh," was all Jonah said.

**As she ran, Madeleine waved to the pink-faced baker and soot-blackened chimney sweep, the burly butcher and weary lamplighter.**

**She dashed around the corner of Front Street. Carriages groaned up the hill, passing an old beggar woman who slept in the shadow of an abandoned stable. Ahead, the street descended toward the lake, where it flattened and followed the gentle curve of the bank. At the bottom of the hill stood O. Babbitt & Daughter.**

**Madeleine slowed. Before the shop, a crowd of people had gathered in the streets. A group of men was pounding on the front door. They were dressed in hooded capes of purple and black.**

"Oh, goodie! Our favorite people in the world have arrived," Nellie squealed like a little girl sarcastically.

**Behind the stood a massive wooden dray cart tethered to pack horses. On the cart, three men lay moaning and half dead. Shackled to the cart's frame, his clothes ripped and face covered in blood, was Professor Xenophilus.**

**Madeleine stopped.**

**The old man slowly turned his gaze up the hill. His deadened eyes settle on her. He gestured feebly with an arm that hung at an odd, unnatural angle. **_**Run away,**_** his body language was saying.**

**One of the caped men spun toward Xenophilus, smacking his head with an open fist. The teacher's knees crumpled and he fell to the cobblestones. "Old fool," the man bellowed, "are ye sure there be Cahills here?"**

"How did they know that they were Cahills?" Madison asked the obvious question.

**Madeleine stumbled backward at the sound of the name she'd only heard uttered by her mother.**

**How did they know? How could Xenophlius-?**

_**Last week.**_** Under her teacher's observation she'd sampled an earlier version of the formula. Just a bit. Upon awakening, he'd scolded her about proper dosage. Too strong, and the potion induced coma! Ah, but too weak, and the recipient was half awake, unable to stop saying his or her innermost thoughts!**

"And that got to the Vespers, how?" Natalie questioned.

"Like I said before," Sinead said, "if you stop asking your questions, you'll find out faster."

**The look on his face had startled Madeleine. His usual jovial, patient expression had changed. He seemed confused, as if seeing her for the first time.**

_**I must have told him that day,**_** she thought.**_** Under the earlier, weaker formula, I must have revealed my name.**_** It made sense- her father was so often on her mind. Surely Xenophilus would have recognized the name of such a famous alchemist.**

**And now the secret had been beaten out of him- **_**because of me,**_** she thought. But by whom? Who were these people?**

"The sweetest people you could know," Ted mumbled so that his sister wouldn't hear him, only his brother could.

**A loud crack rang out. The men were using a wooden ram now, and the apothecary door was about to give.**

"**We know you're in there, woman!" a voice shouted.**

"**Mother!" Madeleine screamed, running down the hill.**

**As she passed the stable, the beggar woman moved. Springing to her feet, she grasped Madeleine by the neck and dragged her into the shadows.**

"What?" most everyone yelled out.

"Hey, cobra," Dan called out, "my back is sore. Can you rub it?"

Ian looked at him like he was crazy. Natalie's eyes looked like they were going to exploded like Mount Vesuvius did, but she remained calm. "Ian, dear brother, you can take care of Daniel's problem, can't you?"

"Why should I?" he retorted. "He didn't even win the bet."

"True, but we did agree that he was half right. So for the day, you have to serve him," Madison said. She really wanted to see how this was going to end up.

"I still don't see why I have to rub his back," Ian grumbled.

Dan, Madison, Natalie, and Ian fought over this for a while. Everyone else tuned them out, and went to do their own thing until the four of them stop fighting.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Okay so not the best 'reading chapter', but eh it's all I could think of.**

**Not really sure if the whole rubbing Dan's back thing is IC, but it was too tempting to do. I mean really, a Kabra rubbing someone's back? I'd pay all the money in the world to see _that_ happen, even if it's just for a minute.**

**My WiFi has been out for the last few days, so I'm at page 108 of typing the story. That's why I haven't updated as fast.  
><strong>

**-Catfriend3000  
><strong>


	16. Chapter 16: Reading Maddy Cahill part 2

**A/N: Okay, so my WiFi is going on off all day, so I have limited time on the internet. So I can't update as much as I like too. I like to update every other day, but with my WiFi, it's unpredictable. Sorry. But with the WiFi being out, I did A LOT of typing the book. I finished typing Madeleine's story in two days because of it. So all I have to do is added the commentary in and such.  
><strong>

**Pages: 62-66? (I don't really know, these pages aren't numbered here)  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Chapter 16:<p>

It wasn't for a full two hours before the four Cahills (Dan, Madison, Natalie, and Ian) ceased to argue.

During the whole time, the other Holts started to work out non-stop, despite what else went on.

Nellie cranked up the volume of her iPod and started to dance around the circle room. At first no one really knew what was going on and gave her strange looks. Eventually, they stopped staring and went on with their own thing. Jonah went to write his newest song, but stopped to start singing with Nellie at some point. Driving everyone else the wall at that point, except the remaining Holts and the fighting Cahills.

The Starlings were on the computer doing something (no one really knows what they were doing or why). All three of them threw a pillow and yelled at Nellie and Jonah, when Jonah joined in with Nellie. After the pillows were thrown, Nellie went to find some cook books, and Jonah got back to writing his new song.

Amy, Fiske, and Alistair were the quietest Cahills. Saladin curled up against Amy, while she read. For some reason, Nellie stopped reading the cook book, and went over and talked with Fiske and Alistair, who weren't really doing anything up until that point.

"Back to reading!" Madison waved the book above her head to get everyone's attention.

Apparently Dan won the argument; Ian was reluctantly rubbing Dan's back. Madison and Natalie were laughing at the scene in front of them. Soon everyone else was too. Hamilton and Jonah were hunching over, they were laughing so much.

After 5 minutes of that, Dan waved off Ian, like he was saying that he was finished.

"I'll read," Ian snapped and pulled the book out of Madison's heads.

**Over the years, Madeleine's training had included ancient fighting techniques to subdue men of great size and strength- but nothing for homeless old women in alleyways. **

Everyone had to give a little laugh at that.

"**Let go, you old buzzard!" she cried, struggling against an iron grip.**

**As she whirled and lashed, the old lady countered every move. "Good grief, will you stop making such a racket!" she finally cried out. "They'll hear us!"**

**Madeleine froze in mid struggled. She fell to the ground and looked up into her adversary's face. "**_**Mother?**_**"**

**Olivia Cahill pulled back her woolen hood. "This old buzzard just saved your life," she said.**

"What's a buzzard?" Dan asked hoping to learn new insults.

"I'm pretty sure that it's a vulture or some kind of big bird," Nellie replied instead of Amy. Dan looked disappoint from the definition.

"**I'm so sorry!" Madeleine protested.**

**Olivia put a gentle finger on her daughter's lips. "We must be quiet, and quick-"**

**Below them a voice boomed, loud and angry. "**_**Open in the name of Lord Vesper!"**_

_**Vesper.**_

"Yippee!" Madison said.

**The name hit Madeleine like a shift in air pressure. As if the entire world were converging on her, pressing against her heart and brain. All her life, Damien Vesper had seemed more bogeyman than real- the shadow in the closet, the monster under the bed. **_**He will find us or die trying,**_** Mother said. **_**And he will stop at nothing to get the secrets of the 39 Clues.**_

"This is one determine fellow," Hamilton mumbled.

**Some monsters, Olivia had warned, were real. And to ward off the one, all Madeleine had needed to do was keep her mouth shut over the years.**

**One simple request, and she had failed.**

"**I-it's my f-fault, Mother!" Her stammer had returned with a vengeance. Madeleine felt the weight of her own betrayal. She had not only put Xenophilus's life in peril but exposed her and Olivia to their nemesis.**

"**Hush, darling daughter. It was only a matter of time. They have been trying for nearly two decades." Olivia's voice was parched. Reaching down into the folds of ragged dress, she pulled out a small leather box. "Consider how lucky we are that we avoided them long enough for you to be prepared."**

"For what?" most everyone asked.

_**Prepared?**_

**Madeleine felt anything but. Yes, for years she'd been learning the secrets of the 39 Clues, undergoing physical and mental training, tracking rumors about her siblings. Still, it had all seemed so... abstract. She had been born after the explosion that killed her father. She'd never met her brothers and sisters. Somehow, the Cahill saga seemed more legend than real, like the tale of the monster Vesper.**

"If only that were the case," Amy said under her breath.

**Another boom, like a cannon shot, echoed from down below.**

**Olivia flinched. "I had such hopes- we would outlast him, you would never face him in your lifetime... But so be it. We will act quickly and decisively. Take the box- and please, recite for me your promises!"**

**Madeleine grabbed the box with shaky fingers Mother had called this the Endgame Strategy. **

"Endgame? What kind of name is _that_?" Nellie blurted out.

"A terrible and creepy one, but appropriate for the situation," Natalie replied without a hint of sarcasm in her voice.

**She hated the name. "B-b-but you will come, too, won't you?"**

"**He doesn't know you exist- so you must go forth alone, as planned. Your brothers and sisters are full of anger. They blame one another for you father's death. We will need to work on them. Be careful and remember: Smartest always beats strongest. I will destroy what little is left of your fathers' work, and then I shall follow. Now, please, let me her **_**the promise**_**..."**

**Madeleine's mind raced, trying to remember. Father had a ring. It was an ugly thing, **

"I agree," Sinead looked over to Amy watch.

**but it contained secrets. Secrets Olivia had never explained. **_**Keep Father's ring safe. That was Number One. Number Two was-**_

**Another sickening crack rent the air. A volley of triumphant voices.**

**The men were in.**

**Olivia stiffened. "I will go in the back way and hope they do not find the hidden door. Go!"**

"**But- the promises-" Madeleine protested.**

"**Just remember them, Madeleine, and whatever you do, stay alive. And one more thing. **_**Do not look back**_**." Tears in her eyes, Olivia cupped her daughter's face and planted a kiss on her checks. "And may God go with you always!"**

**Before Madeleine could say another word, her mother was gone. Into the shadows and through a secret back door to the apothecary.**

"How did Olivia die?" Amy said her voice was a little shaking.

"I don't really know, but I guess we're going to find out," Fiske said.

**Madeleine stepped toward the door in pursuit. Her ears suddenly pinged with a high-pitched whoosh. She felt a trickle of blood down her neck. An arrow.**

**A finger's breathe to the left and it would have split her brain.**

"Normally, I would've found that awesome, but not this time," Hamilton thought out loud.

"**You! Come out of the shadow!" a voice called up from below.**

_**He doesn't know you exist.**_

**There was work to be done. The Endgame was afoot.**

"Really creepy name now," Reagan whispered.

**Madeleine turned her back to the voice. Vesper could not see her face. She began to run, away from the stable, up the hill. She heard shouts and felt the zing of arrows all around her.**

**She heard another voice shout from below: "You imbecile, it's a lassie- too young for the wife! Spare my lord's arrows and help prepare the powder!"**

"Powder?" Dan asked.

**Madeleine darted around the next corner. She knelt by the brick wall of the bakery and caught her breath. Blood had pooled in the well of her collarbone. Carefully, she touched the wound, but it seemed already to be healing.**

_**The powder.**_** What had he meant by-?**

**A sudden explosion rocked the stones beneath her feet. Inside the bakery, shock waves caused rolls and bread loaves to clatter to the floor.**

Amy and Sinead let out a squeak **(that isn't the right word but, something like that)**.

"Oh, that kind of powder," Dan muttered.

**As Madeleine scrambled to look around the corner, she heard a shriek that rose to an unearthly pitch and then ended in a guttural rattle.**

**The apothecary and the stable collapsed in a heap of brick and flames, with Olivia Cahill inside.**

**Madeleine could do nothing but scream.**

"The original were both killed by the Vesper?" Nellie asked in disbelief and continued before anyone could interrupt. "How did the Cahills not know about them after all this time?"

Fiske just shrugged. Everyone else was wondering, somewhat, the same question in their heads.

"Hey, can I read?" Ted asked no one really.

"Sure," Ian plainly said passing him the book.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: In this story of the book there are going to be a lot of definitions coming up. 1. Because the language is a little different 2. Because I think it would be easier to read with the definitions there 3. It would seem more IC to do some of the characters asking what some words mean.  
><strong>

** I don't really think that this chapter is very good, but whatever. No promises when I can update again, hopefully soon. But my WiFi is acting up. Also I have to do my summer reading. The book is **The Princess Bride**.**** I don't know if I'm just stereotyping, but I have a feeling like it's going to be a mushy romance book (which I'm hate. I do imagine the boys in my grade will too). ****  
><strong>

**Not more to say honestly.**

**-Catfriend3000**


	17. Chapter 17: Reading Maddy Cahill part 3

**A/N: Since I can't reply to Anonymous Reviewers I'll write a reply here whether or not the person reads this. And for people who don't want to read the reply: skip the next paragraph and start reading at the moving on.  
><strong>

**To TheFlamerMaimer: I do know that Ian and Natalie are good and I do like them. I'm being perfectly honest about that. For the bet I didn't know who I wanted to win or lose the bet, so I wrote everyone's name on a scrap piece of paper and put into a bowl. The one(s) I pulled out were going to be the loser. Since I didn't think it would be fun just of one group or person to win, I had everyone win except a few. I RANDOMLY chose who was going to lose. I didn't put this explanation with the chapter that first mentions the bet because I didn't really anyone would be this mad about the it. Not trying to offend anyone. Believe me, that's not my intention of the bet, it was just something to make this fanfic a little more unique. And besides, they're not the only ones who lost. Dan lost too. Again not trying to offend the Dan fans.**

**MOVING ON!**

**I got my WiFi back!Yay! More updates! I don't know what was wrong with it, but I'm glad it's fixed after like a month of it going on and off. Because of the limited access of my WiFi, I'm now at the beginning of typing Grace's story.  
><strong>

**Pages:66-70  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Chapter 17:<p>

Ted opened the book to the right page and browsed to the right spot.

_** ~Keep the ring safe.**_

_**~Never let anyone abuse the power of the 39 Clues.**_

_**~Unite the Cahills when the time is right.**_

_All the things Madrigals are trying to do during,_ Amy and Dan looked at one another.

**The promises were stamped in Madeleine's brain. She hadn't recited them as her mother requested, and now they would not let her go. She drew her cloak against the bitter morning wind. Hidden behind a thick copse, she brushed away tears and glanced down through tangled, thorny branches.**

**In a village cemetery, a priest intoned prayer over a freshly dug grave.**

"Cahills do love graves," Amy said referring to all the times where she and Dan were led to a person's grave, and maybe dig it up.

**Local merchants, arm in arm, wept for one of their own. The neighbors, many who owned their lives to Olivia's healing skills, sobbed openly. Madeleine's friends clutched one another. So did her fellow apprentices, long recovered from the sleeping potion.**

_**I am so, so sorry, Mother**_**, she thought. But the unspoken words seemed hollow and pathetic.**

**She recalled Olivia's final two requests: **_**Stay alive. Do not look back.**_** Already Madeleine had broken the second one. Perhaps if she hadn't looked back, she wouldn't have seen the explosion. And all of this would not have hurt so much.**

_**Is this my fate?**_** She thought. **_**To be a promise-breaker? A secret-revealer? A betrayer of the people I love most? A bringer of death?**_

Madison was about to say something, but Hamilton elbowed her. It didn't hurt, though it was hard.

**Madeleine could not stand the hiding. The fakery and failure. The idea that she had trained all her life for...**_**what**_**? What did any of it mean, now that her mother was dead?**

**She rose on unsteady legs. She would run down the hill, fling herself on the grave. She would beg God to return her mother and take her instead.**

**But her body went cold at the sight of a man on the edge of the gathering.**

"This guy is everywhere," Ian mumbled.

**His eyes were not focused on the service but instead scanned the countryside. He wore vestments of deep velvet and stood before a richly appointed carriage with magnificent horses. His face was lined and sagged with age, but he supported a mane of jet-black hair, save of a serpentine silver streak down the right side. And his expression made it clear he cared nothing of the deceased.**

_**Vesper.**_

**Madeleine remembered something her mother had said: **_**You will know Damien Vesper on sight, for he sucks the light from the sun.**_

Everyone laughed at the description.

"My thoughts exactly on Casper," Dan said in between laughs.

**She turned away, sick to the stomach. He had caused the deaths of both her parents. And she felt a crushing truth: The fate of the Cahills, the fate of the **_**world, **_**was solely between Vesper and...**

_**Maddy Babbitt, scared as a rabbit.**_

**Preposterous. Unthinkable.**

_**Remember your training,**_** she told herself. **_**The memorization, combat techniques, alchemy, survival exercises. The Endgame.**_** Try as she might, Madeleine could not think of herself as a warrior. She was who she was- a sheltered Irish country lass. She stood no chance alone against the forces of Lord Vesper.**

**It was over- the battle of the 39 Clues and all it stood for. Father's work had been destroyed. Even if Madeleine found her siblings, none knew the full secret of the formula. As for the ring- well, if Mother couldn't decode its message after two decades, Vesper would never do it, either.**

"Then who made it?" Sinead asked.

**Running away was a fool's game. With his minions, Vesper would hunt her down like a wounded hare. Better to get it over quickly.**

**She stepped forward into the light.**

**Below her now, a bagpiper began playing the Cahill song, "Bhaile Anois." Madeleine's heart felt freshly bruised, as if Mother were rising before her. She could see Olivia's face in the frigid sky, smiling curiously. Madeleine wanted badly to talk to her. Her soul could not feel bleaker than this. She took a step forward, silently asking her mother for advice, forgiveness, and comfort.**

Amy and Dan started to tear a little. They knew what it felt like to lose a parent in front of their eyes.

"Zip it," Nellie snapped at everyone, looking at Amy and Dan's face.

**As if in answer, a hint of a spring breeze whispered over the moor. It seemed to caress her face, to reach into her mind and lift a blanket from her memory. Her mother's words were as plain as if she were inches away. **_**Your father's mission was to heal. Vesper's is to control. He seeks the formula and suspects the secrets of the ring. With the first, he will create a race of superhumans in his service. If he discovers the latter... woe betides the world, which then will be his.**_

"That's a grim thought," Ned said.

**She fingered a bulge under her blouse. Overnight, while hiding in the academy, she had filched from storage a leather belt with a flat pouch. Into the pouch she had placed her sleeping potion vial and the contents of Mother's box: Gideon's mysterious ring. Olivia's handwritten notes about the possible whereabouts of Luke, Katherine, Thomas, and Jane. A small knife, a set of fishhooks, and a hollow darts for hunting. A copy of the music to "Bhaile Anois." And a large sum of money.**

"That's a lot of stuff," Hamilton muttered.

**No. Not the ring. Madeleine had taken it out last night. Just to examine, to try to make sense of the design. It was such a curious, odd-looking thing, with small ridges on the outer rim like cogs. She had placed in on her thumb and not yet taken it off! She turned from the funeral, pulling at the ring.**

**As the sun struggled through a gap in the clouds, the ring glinted. Madeleine quickly dropped it into her pouch. Stepping back behind the brush, she turned and ran.**

**Below her, Damien Vesper flinched at the sudden glare. And he looked up to see a figure disappearing into the heather.**

"Do you think he knew who she was?" Reagan asked.

"Well if what Gideon said was true about him being like a crow, then mostly likely," Ian said with a bored tone.

"Does anyone know when dinner comes?" Dan whined. As if on cue his stomach growled.

"I take it you're hungry," Ted said sarcastically.

"I think dinner comes around 7:30," Fiske answered Dan's question.

"What time is it now?" Hamilton said.

"It's about 20 after 7," Sinead said looking at her watch.

"Awwww!" Dan whined again.

"Let's keep reading for now," Alistair said.

"I'll read," Madison said.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:Sorry if this chapter is suckish. I want to do some Ian/Amy moments but... I HAVE NO IDEA HOW TO WRITE ROMANCE. **

**In Chapter 20(sorry for the wait) there's a time where I think it could be the more detailed. Like it would be more details than a 2-3 line of dialog during the reading. I would be like a conversation, with no one there(well actually most everyone is asleep and people who are awake aren't paying much attention to them). Please review with suggests. I'm hopeless with romance stuff.**

**I've been kinda slacking on writing chapters, so no promise when I'm going to update.  
><strong>

**If you look back on my first chapter, my Aurthur's Notes have gotten a lot longer.  
><strong>

**-Catfriend3000  
><strong>


	18. Chapter 18: Reading Maddy Cahill part 4

**A/N:** **I'm non-stop listening to the song Flute(Radio Edit) by the Barcode Brothers. It's really good, though I'm sure there are people who don't like songs without any lyrics. If your one of those people, don't listen to the song then. I like it because I play the flute.  
><strong>****

******No promises that this chapter is good; I've been slacking on writing chapters and typing the book.  
><strong>****

**Pages:70-80  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Chapter 18:<p>

"**Nice, slimy baby," Master Winthrop Cahill said softly to the red-spotted newt in his hand.**

"Who is Winthrop? And what is with the newt?" Ned said.

"I don't know who Winthrop is but, I sure that he's going to do a prank on someone with the newt," Dan explained to Ned.

"Of course you know," Amy said under her breath.

"**Nice little lizard, who gets very, very scared of dark places..."**

**Threading his way through the crowded market, he was careful to avoid the throngs of buyers. Already he'd squished a salamander and a tree toad.**

"Ew," Natalie squirmed.

"Cool!" the Holt sisters shouted at the same time as Natalie.

**Princess Mary Tudor was just ahead. As she walked, her horrid brown ringlets bounced, whisking the shoulders of her dress like little dancing brooms. Her legs were as spindly as twigs, and her shoulders heaved as she sniffed, which was almost all the time. Winthrop 's father, Luke Cahill**

"Father?" almost everyone cried.

**said he was to marry her someday. Ha! He would rather live as a boil on the backside of a hairy boar. For one thing, she was only ten, a full year younger. For another, she was a first-class twit. Also, her nose ran faster than her boney legs, and she smelled of elderberries.**

"What are elderberries?" Reagan asked.

"It's found on an elder tree, it's used for making wine, jam, and juices," Alistair supplied.

**Not to mention she was ugly.**

**Mary held tight to the warty hand of their governess, Mistress Kletsh. With the other hand, Mistress Kletsh squeezed the merchants' fruits and vegetables while complaining about high prices. As if the king's governess needed to save money.**

**As Mary glanced over her shoulder, Master Winthrop cheerfully picked his nose and wiped it on a gooseberry. She crossed her eyes, stick out her tongue, and turned away in disgust.**

Natalie and Sinead had probably the same face as Mary.

_**Now.**_

**Lunging forward, he pulled back Mary's collar with one hand and dropped in the newt with the other. **

"Told ya," Dan said proudly.

**The creature's little eyes flashed with fright before it disappeared into the layers of fine silk and lace.**

**Princess Mary's shriek was sweet music.**

"I like how this kid thinks!" Dan celebrated.

**Winthrop pretended to be examining a particularly intersecting fig. "Is something wrong?" he said innocently. Watching the old lady fumble with the folds of clothing was even funnier that Mary's jerky dance.**

"_**Master Winthrop Cahill, you lowborn pig, my father shall have your head!**_**" the princess yelled.**

**But the boy's howls of laughter abruptly ended when the cart of figs and gooseberries came crashing down around him. "Thief! Thief!" a merchant cried out.**

"Vesper?" Natalie asked.

**Princess Mary's screams were drowned out by voices shouting, "Over here!" and "Stop him!" As a gray-clad figure darted among the carts, a burly arm hurled a melon through the air. Apples went flying as people dove out of the way, running after the thief. Winthrop watched in awe. A humiliated Mary, a bandit in the market- could life be any sweeter?**

"I like how this thinks, too. Even if he is a Lucian," Hamilton started to cheer with Dan.

**He felt a reptilian claw closing over his arm. "Come with me, young man," Mistress Kletsch commanded, pulling him back toward the carriage along with Princess Mary, who was now half undressed and weeping. The governess nearly threw them into the carriage, climbing in after them. "Go, Edward!" she cried.**

**The driver whipped the horses and the carriage took off. Crafted by King Henry VIII's master coachmaker, it raced smoothly over the English countryside away from the market. Mary and the governess were both yelling at Master Winthrop now, but all he wanted to do was look outside at the melee.**

"Melee?" Ian questioned.

"I pretty sure that it means big confusion, or something like that," Amy mumbled. Ian smirked at her in response which caused her to blush a tinted pink.

**The carriage jounced abruptly. Winthrop's heart leaped with glee. Had they run over a dead body? **

"Well, minus the dead body part," Dan stopped cheering.

**Leaving Mary and the governess to their squealings, he looked out the back window. Alas, nothing to be seen but a dusty receding road.**

**Disappointed, he turned back. But not before catching a patch of gray wool just beneath the right corner of the window.**

**Curious, he climbed the seat again and gazed downward. A pair of eyes gazed back up. The market thief was crouched on the carriage's running board, dressed in gray and wearing a woolen cap with a mask that covered all but his eyes. Clinging to a metal hook, he cast Master Winthrop a panicked, pleading look.**

**No. Not he. **_**She.**_** The thin physique, the long-lashed eyes made that clear.**

"I'm going to bet that was a Cahill," Hamilton said.

"Which one is the question," Ian added.

**More adventure! There was sure to be a reward for this vagabond, and Edward the driver would revel in the capture.**

**Winthrop smiled at the thief and winked. **_**Don't worry,**_** he mouthed. Then he turned to the front of the carriage.**

**On his way to Edward, he took a great care to step on the princess' foot. "Warty Winthrop!" she cried out.**

"**Bloody Mary!" he spat back.**

"Those two seem to get along perfectly," Ted said sarcastically.

**The carriage jounced again. Master Winthrop spun around. He looked out the back of the carriage just in time to see the thief running off down the road. And he watched carefully as she stuffed something into the knot of a gnarled oak tree, whose arms looked like those of a wild dancer.**

"Page break," Madison announced.

"**Wicked, wicked, **_**wicked**_**, child!" said old Williams, dragging Master Cahill by the arm though the Persian rug-covered corridors of King Henry VIII' Palace of Placentia.**

"**Last time it was four **_**wicked**_**s and one **_**wretched**_**," Master Winthrop chirped. "**_**Incorrigible,**_** too. Whatever that means."**

Dan raised an eyebrow and Amy; she could guess what he wanted to ask. "Incorrigible means beyond any hope of reform."

"Kind of how Daniel is," Natalie giggled. Dan glared at her.

**William tut-tutted, yanking the boy around a marble columned corner. "What on earth have you done to make dear, gentle old Mistress Kletsch resign? The fifth governess in three months! How can we except to replace her on such short-**_**where is Hargrove**_**? Hargrove promised he would meet us with another candidate for the king's approval!"**

"If he thinks that's bad, he should meet Aunt Beatrice. One time we had seven different Au pairs in two months because of her," Dan said.

"Two of them were your fault, Dan," Amy said to her brother.

"**Mistress Kletsch smells like the fart of a dying warthog," Winthrop replied. "And that's after she has taken a bath."**

"**Dastardly boy- foul, odious boy!" William said, looking around frantically for his fellow courtier.**

"**Odious..." Winthrop said. "I like that."**

"Odious?" Jonah asked.

"It means one deserves to be hated," Alistair said.

**Stepping into the opening of the king's chamber, William was suddenly calm and ramrod straight. He held Winthrop tightly to his side, set his face into a neutral expression, and cleared his throat. "Ahem."**

**Standing next to King Henry was a man with massive shoulders, fierce eyes, and long black hair. As he paced before a line of prisoners, his cape billowed around his gray robe. He was staring at the first man in line, a broad, curly- haired fellow with few teeth and soiled hands.**

**Winthrop loved watching his father at work.**

"**You say you did not steal the sheep from your lord, then?" said Luke Cahill, his voice a deep, rasping snarl. "You say you are a vegetable farmer?"**

**The man quivered as he replied. "Yes, milord. Them foxes is bedevilin' the countryside a-nights, and they eats the sheeps, they does."**

"He is like an inquisitor or something?" Sinead thought out loud.**  
><strong>

"**Ah, true, true," Luke said, pacing a circle around the man. "No doubt you were home at the time of the thefts, tending to your lessons in proper speaking and good grammar." **

**Master Winthrop let out a guffaw that was stifled by Williams' gnarled, powder-scented hand.**

**Spinning around, Luke swiftly took the prisoner's hand and rubbed it on his own face. "If these are the hands of a vegetable farmer," he said, holding the man's hand toward the king, "then what explains the scent of grease that is now on my face- sheep-wool grease?"**

**The farmer's jaw flapped, his eyes desperate. "But-but I-"**

"**Ha! Brilliant, Cahill!" the king bellowed, applauding lustily. "Good, then, behead the lout."**

"I would say that he's good," Hamilton started, "but that would be complimenting a Lucian. Which is something I'd only do when pigs fly."

**The man fell to his knees in tears. "Milord? I has me a fambly, five little boys and a wife what's with a child. Hunger is to blame, not deviltry! I beg you, spare me!"**

"**Five boys?" King Henry's smile fell and his eyes began to moisten. Master Winthrop had seen this reaction before. The king wanted a son more than anything. Thus far, his only offspring was Mary. According to the so-called Rules of Succession, a daughter was not guaranteed to inherit the throne. But the son of a king automatically become king. Henry had grown so frustrated, he had begun blaming his wife, Catherine, the daughter of the Spanish king and queen. Henry claimed she was cursed. He was trying to convince the pope to annul the marriage. **

**Now he had his eye on a woman named Anne Boleyn- perhaps if they married, **_**she**_** would give him a son! "Not one boy, but five..." the king said softly to the farmer. "You are a lucky man. And we are not without mercy. I sentence you to... oh, three days in the stockade!"**

"What's a sto-" Jonah tried to say.

"It's another word for jail," Sinead said quickly, getting annoyed.

**The man's face broke into a grateful smile. He shouted thanks as guard whisked him away. "I daresay I have a soft heart, Cahill." The king murmured. "I wish these men feared me as much as they so my adviser!"**

"**What some call weakness others recognize as wisdom, my lord," Luke said, bowing to the king. "And now, a moment's pardon while I tend my son."**

"**Yes, yes, of course." The king waved him away, plucking grapes from a gilded plate.**

**As Luke looped toward the door, William began to shake with fear. **

"It seems that every Lucian has that effect on people," Nellie said aloud.

"**Lord Cahill," he said, holding out a parchment scroll, "we have received a formal resignation from yet another-"**

**Luke batted the parchment away. "Are you so poorly suited, William, to the task of finding one good governess from among the entire populations of England?"**

**William bowed, blathering apologies. But Luke pulled his son into the corridor. "What now?" he scolded. "You are expected to shine before the king!"**

"**So I can marry his wretched daughter?" Master Winthrop mumbled.**

"**Who will give birth some day to an heir," Luke said, "who will be king. A **_**Cahill**_** king! Don't you see? The daughter will not necessarily earn the throne. But whomever she **_**marries**_** shall become king!"**

"Power hungry as usual," Dan snickered.

"**Does that seem fair, Father?" Winthrop asked.**

"**Fair?" Luke drew his son closer, his face growing red. "Is it fair to watch one's father burned to death and be blamed for his murder? Is it fair when sickness takes one's beloved? Is it fair to wander the countryside destitute, with a baby boy? I worked my way into this court by grit and cunning. I had to step over other who wanted it less. Fairness was not part of the calculation. My only desire is to redeem our family. House of Lancaster, House of York, House of Tudor-**_** pah**_**! It will be the dawn of the Lucian Age."**

"Okay, so the father part is about Gideon," Ian said replaying the last dialog in his head. "The baby boy is most likely Winthrop. I only don't get the beloved part."

**Master Winthrop frowned. He had heard this story too many times. What was so great about being king anyway? Better to be a bandit or a jousting knight! "But, Father, the king wants to divorce Queen Catherine," Master Winthrop pressed on. "Then Mary will no longer be princess. And then I will have to be married to that hideous-"**

"**Mary will remain princess," his father snapped. "And you will be closet in line for the throne. I shall make that certain."**

"**But there are others in line to succeed-"**

"**Not to worry, Luke; I have plans for the others."**

**Master Winthrop shuddered. His father's tone of voice suggested something far worse than pranks with salamanders.**

**He tried not to think of the word **_**assassination**_**.**

"You guys are really too predictable," Dan laughed.

"**My lord?" a voice piped up from behind them.**

**The two Cahills turned. Hargrove, the king's manservant, was standing in the corridor with a young woman in a peasant dress and governess bonnet, her face cast toward the floor. "I would like to introduce a candidate for the office of governess, a fine young woman of exceeding-"**

"**Yes, yes," Luke said impatiently, "surely she can speak for herself. Is the floor about to collapse, girl, is that why you look down? Do you have a name?"**

**Master Winthrop was used to people's reactions upon meeting his father. Some cried. Others shrank away. Two or three had even fainted, such was his power. But he had never seen an expression like this young woman's. Her eyes fixed on Luke's intently, as if she was trying to look through them to the other side of his head. Then they softened, misted over, as if she were about to cry- but not with fear, exactly. With some other kind of emotion Winthrop couldn't name. If it didn't seem so absurd, he'd think it was something of joy.**

"**I am M-M-Madeleine Babbitt," she said, "of Sc****áth."**

"Why is she there?" Jonah said loudly.

"The guy said that he was introducing a new governess," Ned said. "Weren't you listening?"

"I-I was!" Jonah replied.

"**A daughter of Ireland, then," Luke grunted, his own brogue sneaking into his speech. "Well, let's hope this one lasts longer a week."**

**As he walked back into the chamber, Master Winthrop stared coldly at the new governess. He didn't like her. She was too young and too strange. She had not warts or whiskers. And she didn't smell bad. What was the fun of that?**

**I'm sure we will become close friends," said the Irish lass.**

**Master Winthrop crossed his eyes, said "close friends" with a lisp, and stalked away.**

**But he couldn't help noticing that her face seemed very familiar.**

Right then the two crates fell from the skylight.

"Finally!" Dan yelped running over to the crates, forgetting that he can't open them.

Everyone rolled their eyes at Dan's antics.

Like last time, Hamilton got up and pried the lid open. Dan practically dove into the crate, he was that hungry.

One by one, everyone else got up and went to get some food. Dan finished the fastest, followed by Nellie, who was naturally a faster eater. The Holts finished after, then Amy, Fiske, Sinead, Jonah, Ted, and Ned. Ian and Natalie said that they couldn't eat as fast, for it was bad for their health and that they were delicate. So it took them about an hour to finish their dinner.

"Who wants to read?" Ian said, now done with his dinner and eying Eisenhower, Hamilton, and Fiske. The only ones who hadn't read yet.

"I'll do it," Eisenhower grunted.

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><p><strong>AN: Ahhhh...the second longest chapter, I'm pretty sure. The tenth is the longest with 4,000 something words.**

**I've been doing a lot of Sudoku lately. My best time on a intermediate one is like 9 minutes or so. For a beginners one it's probably like 6 six minutes. I'm pretty good at them, my friend introduced them to me really. Sudoku is what keeps me busy when I'm bored, it also keeps me away from writing this.  
><strong>

**-Catfriend3000  
><strong>


	19. Chapter 19: Reading Maddy Cahill part 5

**A/N: I just saw the movie RENT today! I dunno if it's better than the musical or not 'cause I've never seen the musical(even though I want to). It's probably too old for some of the people, so I'd advise that if you do watch it just be prepared from some serious topics. That was off topic, but I'm bored(as always).  
><strong>

**About the up coming chapters: I'm kinda going against what I said a few chapters ago; if I were to go by every page break, there would probably be like 20 parts to Madeleine's story. So I'm combining a few of them. Plus it makes for a longer chapter if you like that. And no promises that these chapters are good(remember: first story here people and I'm kinda slacking on with writing them).  
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**Pages:80-88  
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><p>Chapter 19:<p>

Madison picked up the book and handed to her dad.

**Madeleine Cahill shivered. She had lived through nineteen frigid winters by the lake, but nothing prepared her for iciness of her brother Luke.**

**She paved her spare, dank bedchamber- seven steps from one end to the other. The height of English power, and all they could give her were four stone wall, a dusty wood floor, and a bed with a sunken horsehair mattress!**

Natalie looked like she was going to faint.

**Her eyes kept darting towards the window. Every flash of white gave her a start.**

**Vesper had been in the food market. She'd seen his badger-head of hair. If she hadn't caused the distraction by upsetting the fruit cart, he might have caught her. **

"_That's_ what happened," Jonah mumbled and nodded his head.

**How long could she keep this up? How long could she survive along? She would have to confront Luke, get him to join her. Somehow.**

**She had come too far to fail. On the days following the funeral she'd become ill in the forest. Overcome by cold, rain, grief, and self-doubt, she had nearly died. But as she read her mother's notes by a peat fire, one like had struck her:**

Eisenhower showed the writing.

**H VIII meant King Henry the Eighth. The Palace of Placentia was just outside of London. A huge journey- across the Irish Sea, all of Wale, and most of England! But Luke seemed her best hope. He was twenty-three years older than Madeleine. He would be the wised sibling. **

"Do you think things would be different if she started with one of the others?" Reagan thought aloud.

"Maybe," was the only word some people murmured.

**So she'd mastered disguises, stowed away on a trade ship, slept in caves and trees- somehow managing to leave each location just as Vesper arrived to try to flush her out. By the time she reached London, she'd nearly starved. Seeing the ****ROYAL GOVERNESS WANTED**** notice had been a stroke of luck.**

Eisenhower showed the sign.

**And now...what? How much better was her brother than her enemy?**

"Compared to the Vesper: a lot better. Compared to the other Cahills: probably the one you want to avoid," Dan remarked.

**Olivia had once described Luke as "larger than life" and "forceful." But this man was also bloodless, cruel, and deeply sad. His eyes seemed to be following Madeleine still, hovering, judging, condemning. They were nearly the same eyes her mother's, piercing and smart- but with all the kindness drained out. Like a familiar painting with one color removed.**

A few of the non-Lucians laughed at the description.

**Madeleine thought about Promise Three: **_**Unit the Cahills when the time is right.**_** Was the time right? Was Luke ready to give up his place in the court to help unite the family?**

**Outside her window, she could see knights practicing for a joust. On a vast field they raced their horses at top speed, thwacking targets made of pigskin stuffed with straw. One of the knights, who rode a majestic dun-color horse, had far more power and agility than the others. She watched as he came to rest and took off his helmet.**

**She was not completely surprise to see it was the king himself, Henry VIII. He was known as a champion jouster. But even he, the most powerful man in Great Britain, feared her brother Luke.**

"There's no surprise there," Sinead said.

**In moments, young Master Winthrop would be arriving for his first lesson, and she needed to prepare. William had suggested tin flute, "a taming influence for the little beast."**

**Madeleine looked forward to that. Olivia had taught her to play. **_**You've a jot of Jane in you**_**, Mother would say after a particularly fine lesson. Madeleine cherished that comment. There were other compliments too- **_**a cut of Katherine, a touch of Thomas, a lick of Luke**_**- for her technical skills, athletic victories, strategic thinking. She was a bit like them all, Olivia had said, but with an extra quality all her own. **_**Do not let the meekness swallow you, Madeleine, for someday people will see you for who you are. You are strong yet with the soul of a peacemaker. You bring people together. Call it a magnificence of Madeleine.**_

Everyone looked at the Madrigals in the room: Amy, Dan, and Fiske. They didn't know that Nellie was a Madrigal. They didn't really question her present here; they were used to that wherever Amy and Dan were, Nellie wasn't far.

**She hadn't been feeling very magnificent lately. But with a roof over her head and food in her belly, she could think clearly now. And plan. She would win over Winthrop first. Work her way into Luke's trust. And when she felt comfortable, she would reveal her identity. That would be the "right time" to begin fulfilling Olivia's dream.**

**A united Cahill family.**

**Madeleine picked up the tin flute and played a bit. The instrument was rusted and sounded like a dying weasel. She suspected there was a hole and found one at the bottom of the instrument. She looked around for something to plug it. Horsehair? Too flimsy. A ripped piece of fabric? Too bulky.**

**She checked the hallway- empty. Reaching under her blouse she unhooked the pouch and peered inside. Hooks and darts? The wrong shape.**

**Then she held up the ring.**

**The flute tapered to a tip narrow enough to slip the ring over. Carefully, she slid it up the instrument. It fit snugly over the hole, as if it were meant to be there.**

"I have a feeling that's going to be a bad move," Ian mumbled.

**Madeleine played a C major scale, which floated through the room, clear and sweet. She smiled. If only she could afford to exposed the ring like this! Naturally, that was impossible. It would be violating Olivia's promise.**

_**Or would it?**_

**Professor Xenophilus liked to say that the best hiding places were in plain sight.**

"That's true," Ted said.

**Only Mother and Father knew about the ring. Vesper was chasing her for the serum formula and knew nothing of the ring. If Madeleine were to be captured, it would make sense for the ring**_** not**_** to be on her anyway...**

**A loud burp at the door made her jump. She turned to face her scowling charge, who stared at her with folded arms.**

_**If you let him control you**_**, William had warned,**_** you will lose both this job and your sanity.**_

"Sounds like a Lucian to me," Amy said.

"**You are seven minutes later," Madeleine said. "I trust that will not happen again-"**

"**I know who you are," the boy interrupted.**

**Madeleine's heart began to pound. Had she been followed? Had Luke recognized her? "Kn-kn-know me?" she said. **

"**You're the thief!" Master Winthrop blurted out triumphantly." From the market! I saw you on the back of the royal carriage, with a mask!"**

**Relief washed over Madeleine. Dealing with a mischievous child was one task she was sure she could handle. "Well. I guess you're flushed me out..."**

"Why admit it!" Natalie screeched.

"**Like a pheasant!" Winthrop crowed. Hands on hips, head cocked, he began circling Madeleine. "But we are not without mercy. I will spare you, but I have some demands." He began counting off demands on his stubby fingers. "Five minutes of memorization per week. Latin only on Tuesdays. No mathematics ever. Three hours of lunch. Vegetables forbidden. I eat and drink what I want. And no wooden paddle."**

"**You are a clever negotiator," Madeleine said.**

"Well naturally. He's a Lucian," Natalie bragged and calmed down from the last comment.

"**I am the son of Luke Cahill." Master Winthrop preened as he sat on the edge of the bed. "And I have decided that I shall not learn today."**

"**Oh?" Madeleine nodded. "Well, the, fine."**

"**Because I have too much gas, and the flute will make me..." Winthrop's voice trailed off. "Did you say...'fine'?"**

"**This hour belongs to you. If you chose not to learn, then I well play and you can listen."**

**She lifted the tin flute to her mouth. He looked away, already bored. Eyeing the ring, Madeleine realized it resembled no more than a grooved collar. With its clogged design, it could have been found on the floor of the smithy's shop. No one would take it for a valuable secret. And it certainly made the flute sound magnificent.**

**As she played a county air, Master Winthrop's expression began to soften. His body swayed when she followed with a sad ballad. Before long, he and Madeleine were dancing to an Irish reel, both of them collapsing with laughter on the bed. **

"I can't really picture that," Ian plainly said.

"Well that's because you're no fun," Hamilton said.

"**Well," Madeleine said finally. "Shall we move on to a history lesson?"**

"**No!" Winthrop snapped, grabbing the tin flute. "Teach me!"**

**She raised an eyebrow.**

**He smiled meekly. "Please?"**

"Page break," Eisenhower said.

**Who would have thought Master Winthrop had a jot of Jane?**

Natalie looked insulted by the comment.

**To Madeleine's surprise, he was a wonderful musician, a natural. Which played right into her plan. She would stage a recital. Luke could not help but be impressed with her skills as a governess!**

**One week later she stood before the king, Luke, and assorted courtiers.**

"**M-may I have your attention, lords and l-lassie." Madeleine shook as she looked around the music chamber. She eyed the tin flute. Gideon's ring still covered the hole. In a fit of nervousness, she had tried to remove it, but Master Winthrop had screamed at her. He'd claimed the flute sounded "odious" without it. And young Winthrop did not take no for an answer. "We h-h-have a very s-s-special musical p-p-performer-" she continued.**

**Master Winthrop yawned loudly, twirling the tin flute. Madeleine prayed the ring stayed on. She vowed to remain calm about it. After the recital, the king would surely allow the court to buy a new tin flute. And she would pocket the ring again. "M-may I p-present the very talented Master Winthrop Cahill!" she declared.**

**The king clapped his beefy hands.**

**As Winthrop began playing, Henry VIII smiled sleepily. Luke stared at his son intensity.**

"As cold as ever, I imagine," Nellie whispered.

_**What is he feeling?**_** Madeleine couldn't tell. Luke looked everything the same way. Like a viper eyeing its prey.**

**As the recital ended, the king shouted, "Bravo, boy! Excellent!" Master Winthrop took a bow, and another, and another.**

**By then, even Luke was smiling. The expression softened his face, made him look more Cahillian than ever. But as the court all gathered to praised the boy, no one said a word to Madeleine. Not even a curt "thank you." Not even Luke.**

**She bowed, exited the room, and sat on a banquette in the corridor, waiting for Master Winthrop to emerge. This was not what she had planned.**

**She was a nobody here. To break through to her brother, she needed to be a **_**presence**_**. She closed her eyes, trying to picture Olivia's face. **_**Guide me**_**, she thought.**

**A moment later, a gangly, sooty-face young man come skittering down the hall. He leaned toward Madeleine, panting. His breath smelled of goose liver. "Babbitt?" he said, sending a rotten blasted that nearly made her gag.**

Natalie looked like she would gag as well just from the description.

"**Please keep a gentlemanly distance," Madeleine said. "And it's Babbitt.**

"**Oh. Right." He lurched forward, taking her by the arm.**

"**I beg your pardon!" Madeleine cried. "Unhand me or I will call for Luke Cahill."**

**The man grinned and tightened his grip. "The Lord Luke's what sent me! Im under personal orders to escort Madeleine Babbitt meself!"**

"**Escort?" Madeleine said. "Where?"**

"**Where do you fink, mum? The royal countling-'ouse?" the man laughed hysterically. "Come along- you are under arrest!"**

"The royal-what? I couldn't understand him." Jonah asked.

"Funny you're the one asking," Ned said under his breath.

"I think he said the royal counseling house or something like that," Alistair guessed.

"Can we stop reading?" Madison said. "We've been reading all day."

_Not really_, Amy thought of all the long breaks.

"Fine by me," Hamilton said standing up and walking to the computers.

"Best five outta nine!" Dan shouted as he got up and followed Hamilton.

"I'm wanna update my blog. Do you think they'll let me sit down," Jonah said pointing at Dan and Hamilton.

"Maybe," Amy said walking over to her bed for her book.

Eventually everyone was doing their own thing.

Around 11:30, everyone went to bed.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I don't know if I should do all reading chapters and have little breaks in them. Or do big breaks that will be a chapter by itself.  
><strong>

**I know I haven't done this in a while(even though I should): I DON'T OWN A THING!**

**Another off topic thing, what do you think can break plexiglass? 'Cause isn't it like one of the strongest materiel or something like that.  
><strong>

**-Catfriend3000  
><strong>


	20. Chapter 20: Reading Maddy Cahill part 6

**A/N: OY! I hated(well not hate but something like that) typing the dialog in these next few chapters. There were so many red little squiggles on the pages. No promises that the Amy/Ian moment is going to be any good. Like I said, I stink at romance. It's like one of the first thing in the chapter, so you don't have to read very far to get to it.**

**Two more chapters for Madeleine's story! Well since I'm not doing every page break as one chapter. I f I was, there would be like 7 more chapters; which I think would be too many parts. **

**Pages:88-97  
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* * *

><p>Chapter 20:<p>

Everyone, or some people, got up earlier than the day before.

When Amy woke up, Fiske, Ned, Ted, Nellie and, surprisingly, Ian were already up.

Fiske was reading the newspaper that somehow got into the room. Ned and Ted were planning a prank for their sister. The prank was when she got up and went to her closet; she would receive a jolt of electricity by the handle. Nellie was checking her emails. Ian was just wondering around the room, doing nothing.

Amy went to her closet to pull out a pair of jeans and a t-shirt. She walked to one of the bathrooms to change.

When she got out, Ian greeted her good morning. "Good morning Amy," Ian said with a smile of a thousand watts**(Dunno if that's IC but with Amy, I guess it could happen...)**.

"G-good morning Ian," Amy mumbled and walked passed him to her bed. Ian followed Amy to her bed.

"How have you and Daniel been since we all were last here?" Ian said as smoothly as ever.

"It's Dan and we've both been, er, okay. I guess. W-we went to Switzerland to get the ring when we were attacked by the Vespers. Other than that, I guess a, almost, regular life," Amy said looking down. "What about you and Natalie?"

"We're getting by," Ian said slowly. "My father went into hiding after Mu-Isabel was arrested. We're living by ourselves now, and I also took on my parents' art-dealing business," he was scratching the back of his head by now.

"Oh," was all Amy could say.

Not long after everyone got up with an empty stomach. More or less pleasantly. Since Sinead's and Natalie's beds were next, Ned and Ted got the closets mixed up; the prank went on Natalie instead of Sinead.

Natalie's shriek filled the room and woke up(or scared) everyone.

"We can talk later, right?" Ian winked and walked to the table.

"Ah, uh..." she was left speechless. She reluctantly sauntered to the table behind him.

"What's for breakfast, people?" Dan said, still half asleep, getting out from his bed.

"As you can see, it hasn't the crate hasn't drop yet," Ian said sitting down.

"We could do some reading while we wait," Mary-Todd suggested.

"I would like to read, if that's fine with everyone," Fiske said. No one said anything, so Fiske picked up the book.

**Madeleine hadn't expected King Henry's prison to be so like her maid's quarters. The big difference was the metal bars, the unearthly stench, and the granite bench that numbed her rear end.**

"That's better than the jail I was taken to," Nellie said.

"Wha- oh, right," Dan remembered.

"Why were at in jail? Did you do something?" Madison said eagerly.

"Long story," Amy said.

_**Why?**_

**No one had given her an explanation for being here. She could barely understand the guard's accent. Was it something Master Winthrop had told them, some dreadful lie?**

**It took her hours to fall asleep against the cold stone. She dreamed longingly about the horsehair bed**

**The voice of Luke Cahill jarred her awake. "Well, who knew my little boy had such a gift for music?" he rasped in the darkness. "My compliments on the tutoring."**

**Madeleine sat up with a start. She shivered as his silhouette drew closer, lit from behind by the guard's lantern. Dressed in a full-length fur coat, he resembled some kind of ghoulish beast, half man and half bear.**

"And I thought he were scarier before," Dan said kind of half laughing.

**The day's events rushed over her- the bruises, the unfairness. "This s-s-seems an unlikely form of gratitude."**

**Luke sat down next to her, his feature inches away yet mere shadowy blots in the darkness. "Well, then, you will no doubt have a satisfactory answer to this question: Where did you get the ring?"**

**She felt blood draining from her face. "You-you know about it?"**

"**My father wore it every day. I would tease him about it. Such a crude thing. It was one of a kind, he said. That was all." Luke leaned closer. "He died in a fire. Everything he had- his clothing, his jewelry, his life's work- destroyed. And yet, his ring appears **_**on a tin flute**_**."**

"He was right!" Dan pointed at Ian.

"Naturally, Daniel," Ian smirked.

**As Maddy Babbitt shrank in fear, Madeleine Cahill sized up her brother. She had to remain calm. To follow through in her plan despite the setback. "May I see the ring?" she asked.**

"_**Do you think I would be so idiotic as to have it with me**_**?" Luke snapped. "Perhaps you can begin by telling me who you are, and why you had it!"**

**Madeleine's heart sank. He had probably put it in a safe place, or given it to one of his trusted courtiers. They all lived in fear of him and would do whatever he asked. He was too cagey to carry it around.**

**Which meant that Promise Number One-**_** Keep the ring safe**_**- had been broken**

**Her only hope was to force Promise Number Three.**

"You two were the first to complete all three, weren't you?" Ted said pointing at Amy and Dan.

"Yep," Dan said proudly.

**She could no longer wait to win his trust. She had to reveal her identity. The reuniting the Cahills must begin. Now. **

"**B-b-before you fled," she said carefully, "your mother had neglected to mention something about her c-c-condition."**

**Even in dim light, Madeleine could see the knife-sharpness of his glare. "I will listen to you for precisely one minute. I advise you- no nonsense."**

"**Luke..." Madeleine took a deep breath. "My name isn't Babbitt. Mother was with a child on the last day you saw her. I was that baby."**

**Luke did not move for a good twenty seconds. She tried to read the expression on his face but couldn't. Then, slowly, he reached out and cupped her chin gently in his hand, moving her face right and left.**

"**Swounds..." **

"Swounds?" Hamilton said.

"Probably a way of saying sound," Dan said.

**-he said. "Good grief, yes... the resemblance..."**

**This close, she could see the icy veil over his eyes disappear, as if Olivia herself were peering through. In a flash, Madeleine sensed the her long trip- through fear and sickness, disguises and lies- hadn't been a waste after all.**

**She wanted to throw her arms around him. But it was too early for that. The bond was new and fragile. One step at a time. As tears streamed down her cheeks, she felt herself laughing, overcome with joy and relief. "I- I have so much to tell you, my brother."**

"**I know you do." Luke took her hand and stood.**

"Is he just playing her?" Nellie asked.

"Most likely, since that's what Lucians are known for," Ted said.

_**Where to begin?**_** She would save the sad news of Mother's death till the end. There were nearly two decades of catching up. "Mother and I...we were living in exile. Under invented names. Babbitt- can you imagine? Not even a name with a bit of...**_**flash**_**, such as, I don't know, Ravenwood. Or Lancelot! I had to become quiet, to deflect attention. Like a scared little mouse! Anyway, Mother secretly trained me all my life for this final mission-"**

"**Shhh, my dear," Luke said. "Please. Don't rush. It is an emotional moment, I can see. I will give you time to put together your feelings and your story. But if it comforts you any, please know that I have heard it all already."**

"I'm confused now. What is he talking about?" Madison bluntly said.

"Shut up!" her brother and twin scolded her.

**Madeleine wiped a tear. "You **_**have**_**?"**

"**Oh, yes, many times." Luke chuckled. "The details are different, but the broad story is the same."**

"**i-I'm afraid I don't understand..." Madeleine stammered.**

**Luke stood at the door, signaling the guard to open it. "I daresay you're far more talented than the last one claimed to be a sibling. My long-lost brother Nigel- lived in hiding under a false identity and so forth. And before him was sister Gladys, aunt Puff, and cousin Quincy-"**

"Who would names their kid Puff?" Dan snickered.

"**But- there is no Nigel Cahill, or any of the others!"**

"**Or **_**Maddy Cahill!**_**" Luke voice was more of a slap than a sound. "Why did you display the ring? What on earth is your plan?"**

"**I did it to p-p-plug a hole!"**

**Luke turned in disgust. "No matter. If you have other agents in this palace,**

"Others? There's just one Madrigal at this point in the book, isn't there?" Natalie said.

"I don't think he's talking about the Madrigals," Reagan responded.

"But I have an idea of who," Ned mumbled so that no one could really hear him.

**they will be routed. If you have thought to flush me out by the sight of this ring- if you are planning an ambush- your people will find nothing of me. Before long, your employer will know that after all these years, his plan has failed. And revenge will follow."**

"**Employer?" Madeleine shrank back into the cell. She wasn't understanding a word of his rant.**

"**Do not take me for a fool. Only one person could have had possession of the ring. He one who watched my father die. The one whose blindness and greed have just ensured his own defeat." Luke turned to the guard. "Simon, prepare the prisoner for pubic execution in two days. Send an invitation far and wide, and be one the lookout for a man named Vesper."**

"I was right," Ned, again, mumbled.

"**Vesper?" Madeleine said. "How can you possibly think-?"**

"**I shall send for the hangman right away!" Simon replied.**

"**Not a hanging," Luke replied with a slow smiled. "I would prefer a slow burning at the stake, and a front-row seat.**

"Page break," Fiske said. "Shall I continue?"

"I guess," Nellie shrugged.

"**CCCHHHH...HELP!"**

**At the noise, Simon fell off his chair, ending a blissful dream. "Whaa? Szzzm? Oh, for the love of 'Enry..."**

"What did he say?" Hamilton said.

"'For the love of Henry' I'm pretty sure," Ted said.

**The choking was from the new prisoner. The young girl. Babbitt. The spy. He shook himself awake and rose.**

**Lighting a lantern, he approached the cell. "Wha' then?" he called out. "Roast pheasant caught in yer froat?"**

**He snickered. The prisoners always like a bit of humor.**

**But the choking now sounded like vomiting, which made the guard blanch. Last time that happened, the prisoner died before he could have a proper beheading.**

"Is that supposed to be a good thing?" Amy asked.

**And there went an honest day's pay. "'Old yer puke, will ye, and I'll fetch somefing to drink."**

**He returned to his station, a hard seat by the hallway wall. On the floor was a chamber pot, a spittoon, and a jug of cheap beer he'd been sipping for hours. All day long he'd been confusing them. "S'pose it don't matter which..." he murmured to himself with a chuckle.**

**The jug of beer smelled a bit off, but he brought it down the hallway and fumbled with the key. "'Elp is 'ere!" he said, opening the gate.**

"Do they not say the H's in words?" Dan asked half sarcastically.

**Simon felt a tiny sting in his neck. And all went black.**

"Another page break," Fiske said.

**Madeleine tiptoed past the guard. He was fast asleep.**

**She managed smile. The sleeping potion had worked, and the dart had held just enough of it to knock him out.**

"_**I enjoy rainy days...**_**" Simon said. "**_**And I miss my little doggie..."**_

Everyone gave a light snicker at the secrets being revealed.

**Madeleine realized the dose must have been a bit too weak. **_**Too little, and the victim will begin revealing his innermost thoughts,**_** Professor Xenophilus had said.**

**This meant she didn't have long to make her escape. Maybe fifteen minutes. **

**In the darkness, she had managed to change clothes. Simon's uniform was filthy and far too large for her frame. She couldn't do much about the aroma, but at least the hooks from Olivia's secret pouch held the material together adequately.**

**As she began climbing a set of steep stone steps, Simon was confessing his fear of bunny rabbits.**

"A prison guard is afraid of rabbits?" Natalie asked in disbelief.

**He would be awake soon, but the fact that he was wearing a governess' dress meant he might not call for help quite so quickly. She tried to look on the bright side. Bu the ring was lost, Luke that she was Vesper's spy, and if she were caught, she would die. Here best hope was escape, from one of the most heavily guarded palaces in the world.**

"I don't think these guards are the best in the world," Natalie snorted.**  
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**She had made stupid, unforgivable mistakes. Putting the ring on the tin flute. Allowing Master Winthrop to convince her to keep it there. Expecting that no one would recognize it.**

**As she neared the top of the stairs, she made a vow.**

**She would escape and regroup. She would use every ounce of her skills and cunning to find the ring. Somehow. And when she did, she would never let anyone, or anything, block the fulfillment of the promises.**

**From this point on, if she survived, the plan would be radically different. It would involve infinite patience. Observation. And more patience. If it took her lifetime- her children's lifetime, **_**their**_** children's lifetime**

Everyone who wasn't born a Madrigal, looked at Amy and Dan.

**if took the creation of a secret family **_**within**_** the family, so be it. The 39 Clues would remain secret for centuries if necessary. Until the moment when the families were ready to unite.**

**From this point on, Maddy Babbitt was dead.**

**Long live Madeleine Cahill.**

"Yeah!" Dan jumped out of chair. Everyone gave him a weird look. "What?"

**At the landing, she inserted a large skeleton key into the thick, brass-plated wooden door. It creaked loudly as it opened.**

"_**Wha? Hrrrrumph!"**_** a gruff voice shouted. Another guard.**

**Madeleine's leg locked. She cleared her throat and lowered her voice as far as it would go. "Go back to s-s-sleep," she grumbled.**

"**Right, then, Grandmother..." came the answer, followed by a snore.**

"These guards are horrible," Ian complained.

**She stepped out into a narrow hallway. It led past a row of small warrenlike rooms, the living quarters for the kitchen maids. They were already awake, baking and preparing the day's meals. As Madeleine darted past the kitchen, the scent of warm bread made her mouth water.**

**She followed candle-lit sconces through a long corridor. The palace was a maze, but at some point, if she walked far enough, she'd reach a door. She grabbed one of the scones and held it like a torch.**

"**I beg your pardon?" a voice called from behind her. "May I ask what business you have here?"**

**It was Williams, the boy valet.**

"By the way, what is a valet?" Madison asked.

"I guess you could say that he's like a personal servant," Amy said.

**Madeleine's mind raced. Luke had said he did not have the ring. Which meant he had given it to someone he trusted. Could it be William? "Hrrrm...Lord Cahill has sent me to fetch the ring," she said in her guard voice.**

"**Ah, the ring, yes," William said. "And you have the written request, do you?"**

"**Erm, yes, of course," Madeleine said. She reached inside the shirt for her pouch. For the darts.**

**William was backing away. Suddenly he shouted, "Holworthy! Wigglesworth! Stoughton! **_**Hargrove!**_**"**

**Change of plans Madeleine charged forward, sending Williams sprawling into the hall. To her left, an older man in a plaid nightgown and tasseled sleeping cap appeared in a doorway. "**_**Guard!**_**" he shouted. **_**"We have an imposter in the palace!"**_

"Not good," Sinead murmured.

**Madeleine raced the other way, ducking to the left down another long, straight section of the hallway. At the end of it was a square of dull amber light. The sun was beginning to rise. Soon the entire palace would be awake.**

**The hallway ended in a T, and men were approaching from either side. She wheeled around. The old man was padding toward her, followed by a gaggle of butlers and scullery maids brandishing wire whisks and serving spoons. There was nowhere to go.**

**Except one.**

**She leaned back, pushed open the window, and jumped.**

"Ah," Amy gasped.

"Why do you look so surprised? We've jumped from high places a few times before," Dan shrugged.

"What? You did? When?" Nellie asked frantically.

"Uh...let's see, there was the time in the Lucian's stronghold, that hotel in Venice, and others I can't remember."

People looked at him in awe, confusion, doubt, or in Nellie's case, partly anxiety and part anger. Before Nellie, possibly, gave Dan a lecture, the crates fell.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Really bad(pathetic actually) Amy/Ian moment but hey it's better than nothing, son please don't complain.  
><strong>

** I'm not sure if all the stunts that Dan mention are right(I haven't read the series in a while). That's all I really have to say right now.  
><strong>

**-Catfriend3000**

**P.S: I don't own anything.  
><strong>


	21. Chapter 21: Reading Maddy Cahill part 7

**A/N: Have you smiled today? If not you should watch the short film "Validation". It's on YouTube. It's a great film, or short film, and it will make you smile or at least happy or even cry(of happiness). I watched at school, but totally forgot about it until today. That was random for the first thing for a A/N(too lazy to type the whole thing) but whatever.**

**With the story: Getting closer to Grace's story(the next one up). Grace's story is my favorite. Reason? I don't know why, I just like it. And I don't own anything. And YAY! for Chapter...21! 21 isn't my favorite number, but for some reason I can't wait to be 21!  
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**Pages: 97-105  
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><p>Chapter 21:<p>

"Ams furm," Dan said with a mouth full of food and spiting a few crumbs towards Reagan and the Kabras.

"Ew," Natalie shrieked.

"Please repeat, Daniel," Ian dodged the crumbs that came his way.

"For the millionth time-"

"I think he said 'Hams turn'" Reagan translated and wiped the crumbs of table.

"Fine by me," Ted said.

Everyone finished their breakfast, and cleaned up. Except for Jonah, the Starlings, and Hamilton who were just sat at the table doing nothing.

Hamilton picked up the book and began to read.

**Goat manure, though no one's favorite substance, had the benefit of being soft.**

"Gross!" most all the girls yelped.

**As Madeleine sprang to her feet, she wondered just how many more charms of King Henry's court she would discover. **

**She had landed at the edge of the royal garden. Above her, the palace rang with commotion. She raced towards the barn. Ducking around a corner, she nearly fell into a large barrel.**

_**Rainwater.**_

**She continued her course into the barrel, feetfirst. The water's color clouded fast, and when she jumped out she felt a bit more pleasant, and less fragrant. **

"That's just as disgusting as the goat manure," Natalie squirmed.

**By now she could hear people running across the farm toward her. She headed toward the open barn door.**

**An ox-drawn cart emerged, laden with hay bales. The ox driver was gazing curiously towards the commotion, away from Madeleine. She dove onto the cart, nestling herself between bales.**

**The carts wheels creaked loudly beneath her as they moved. She peered out from the hay. In the distance, the sun struggled over the horizon, casting the ground in a silvery predawn glow. One by one, darkened palace windows were flickering with light. A small arched door flew open, and someone rushed out, dressed in a servant's black cloak.**

"Vesper in disguise?" Dan suggested.

"Maybe," Madison answered.

**She squinted, trying to recognize the face before the figure rushed away toward the livery stable.**

**Hargorve. Heading in the wrong direction.**

"Not him," Nellie said. "But it was a possible guess."

"I have a feeling that he's not who he says he is," Alistair said under his breath.

**The cart was slowing now. From behind her, she heard the breathless voice of a guard grilling the driver. She didn't hear the question exactly, but she heard the driver's annoyed reply: "Wha' kind of palace is it where ye can't keep track of yer own governess? **_**You**_** skitter about after 'er, mate. I got work to do."**

"What's with everyone talking with improper grammar?" Hamilton blurted out.

"Not everyone could afford an education back then, dolt," Sinead said.

_**Thank you**_**, she thought, staying still as the cart trundled to who-knew-where. She was too afraid to poke her head up, but she finally did when the cart eventually come to a stop.**

**She recognized the destination. The jousting field. A few yards to the right was a large wooden shed where the knights prepared for practices. It was quieter now, and inside there was sure to be another change of clothes- dry and hay less.**

"Gross!" Natalie shrieked.

"What's so gross about clean clothes?" Madison asked, confused at Natalie's reaction.

"That's not it," Natalie snapped. "It was that she was wearing clothes with hay on them."

**As the driver began discussing the weather with someone, Madeleine slipped off the cart and into shed. Hay stuck to every inch of her. A sleeping stable boy opened his eyes briefly and went back to sleep. **

"You would think that people who work for the king of England, wouldn't fall asleep on their jobs," Ted said.

**In the morning light, Madeleine saw suits of metal armor, chain mail, pads, boots, helmet, full-body undergarments, saddles, stirrups, curry comb, tack of all sort, swords, lances, maces, and weapon she couldn't name. But she was most interested in the undergarments, some which looked boy size. Quickly she changed into one, a black fabric suit that fit perfectly. It felt good to be dressed in something clean.**

"No fashion sense at all," Natalie said in disgust.

"There are more important things in the world than fashion, Kabra," Sinead scolded.

**Tethered to a pole at one end of the shed were two flea-bitten horses, suited up and ready for the day's jousting. They gazed lazily at her, then went back to chewing a meager scattering of hay.**

"'**Ungry, mates?" came the driver's voice, just outside the door. "'Igh quality 'ay, comin' yer way- and dry's a bone!"**

**Madeleine panicked. No one in the kingdom would fail to recognize a young woman in men's garment. **

"Page break," Hamilton said.

"**Saints alive, ain't they feedin' yer nothin' bit crickets and mices?" the driver said as he entered, letting a bale of hay from each shoulder before the grateful horse. Outside, the king's men were jabbering on about the missing governess.**

"'**Ear that? Missing lassie! Meself, I don't blame 'er. That Master Winthrop is worse than a stubborn nag- no offence."**

"I've never really thought of a cobra stubborn. Only as mostly obnoxious, rude, and spoiled," Dan said. Ian and Natalie gave him a death glare.

**He slipped the horses a couple of sugar cubes before exiting. "'Ere, put some fat on yer spindly bones."**

**Madeleine watched it all through the slits of a helmet. She hadn't imagined how heavy a helmet and a suit of chain mail could be. Or how hot. Or what a perfect hiding place it was.**

"Noted," was all Ian said. Dan raised is eyebrow when he said that.

**By the time the voices began to recede, she felt like she was roasting. Through the slits in the helmet she could see the stable boy stirring. She would have to gain his trust. She lifted one leg and stepped forward. The chain mail clanked heavily. "Please," she said, her voice sounding dull and muffled through the helmet, "wake up."**

**The boy's eyes flickered open and he sprang to his feet. "I'm-I'm sorry," he cried out. "I worked through the night, I did. Only been sleepin' a moment or two-"**

**Before Madeleine could reply, a deep voice thundered from the open door. "Good morrow, McGarrigle! Are we ready?"**

"**Er...almost, my lord," the boy replied.**

"How many lords are there in this book?" Madison bluntly said.

**Madeleine turned. Ducking through the door was an older man, holding a riding crop. Glancing at Madeleine, he grinned. "Well, I'll be a two-headed buzzard- 'tisn't often that a jousting partner arrives this early. **

"Jousting partner?" almost everyone cried.

**Fearless fellow, eh? Let me know when ye're in yer tournament armor, and we can begin straight away. Make sure this man has a fine mount, McGarrigle!"**

**Madeleine could fell her chain mail clatter as she shook. "Mount?" she said in her deepest voice to McGarrigle. "As in...**_**mount**_**?"**

"What does mount mean, anyways?" Hamilton asked.

"It means to climb on a horse, young Tomas," Alistair replied.

"**It won't be so bad," the boy said, approaching her with heavy set of metal armor, "as long as ye're protected wiff these."**

**It took about twenty minutes for Madeleine to climb into the armor, with the boy's help. It felt like as if she were wearing small building. "I'm supposed to move in this?" she asked.**

"**It's the least 'eavy suit we 'ave." The boy, who was examining the teeth of the two horse, took the reins of one and brought it closer. "This old nag may stay on its feet for a few moments at least," he said. "Good luck jousting wiff the old fellow."**

"Who's she racing?" Jonah said.

"Shut up!" Sinead scolded.

"**But-" Madeleine said.**

"**Step on this," McGarrigle, pushing her onto a wooden platform, which he raised with a massive winch.**

**Madeleine felt herself rising in jolts of motion until her knees were the height of the horse's back. With a swift move, McGarrigle slid her leg off the platform and out over the horse. She landed on the horse's back with a thud, causing her knees buckle.**

"**Sorry, I has to do this wiff all his partners, "McGarrigle said, adding with a rueful sigh, "but never the same feller twice, if ye know what I mean."**

"Does that mean they...die?" Amy said slowly.

"I doubt that anyone would die from a jousting , sis," Dan said.

"But I imagine they can get injured pretty badly," Ned added.

**Madeleine felt the blood drain from her face. "Let me down!" she protested. But McGarrigle thrust into her hand a lance that felt as heavy as a tree, and her shoulder was nearly wrenched out of its socket.**

"**We'll share a cup afterward," the boy said, "if yer head's still attached."**

"Is that supposed to make her feel better?" Nellie asked sarcastically.

"**Wait- this is a m-m-mistake!" Madeleine stammered, lifting her visor.**

"**You bet yer sweet buzzard it is," the boy said, giving the horse a good, hard kick.**

**Madeleine's visor slammed shut as the horse galloped into the sunlight. She fought to stay upright, to keep her lance from drooping to the ground.**

**The field was long and dusty, with a few rows of empty seats on either side. At the far end, her opponent sat tall atop a black steed whose leg muscles bulged and glistened. "Ah, grand!" he shouted, clutching his helmet to his side. "It's not often the Spanish ambassador arrives early for a joust. I was expecting not to see you at all!"**

"They think that she's an ambassador? Didn't she say that it would be easy to recognize a girl wearing armor?" Reagan asked.

_**Spanish ambassador?**_

**Madeleine recognized the voice before she could see him through the slits of her visor. It was King Henry.**

"She a goner," Ian mumbled.

"Well, aren't you optimist," Ned said sarcastically.

**In his armor, he appeared to be the size of two men. He handled his own lance as if it were a willow wasp. With a grin, he raised the visor of his helmet. "I have received word of your...disapproval of my desire to annul my marriage. You know my position, and you know my right as king. Yet still you protest. Perhaps we shall decide this matter on the field?"**

"They're seriously fighting over that? That's so stupid," Hamilton thought out loud.

**Madeleine tried to think of something to say, but it was enough just to keep upright. Out of the corner of her eyes, she spotted a distant fancy carriage approaching- probably the **_**real **_**ambassador. **

"**I take your silence as an agreement!" the king bellowed, lowering the visor. His horse dipped its head twice, impatiently striking the ground with its hooves. As steam puffed from its nostrils, it looked more bull than horse.**

"**Readyyyyyy!" King Henry called out, raising his lance high**

_**I'm dead**_**, Madeleine thought.**

"She's even thinking the same thing," Ian said.

**If he even so much as swung that lance, its wind alone would knock her over. She had to get away. Now.**

"**About f-f-ace," she said to the horse, flailing with her boots. "Into the barn, please. It's time for some tasty hay! **_**Haaaaaaay!"**_

"That horse must really like hay," Ted said.

**The horse took off like a shot, toward King Henry. The king seemed surprised, as if he wasn't expecting her to go just yet. "Cheating doesn't work in England," he hissed.**

**He kicked his horse. The steel dug in hard, sending up storm clouds of dirt. The king's eyes blazed through the visor as she slowly lowered the lance.**

**It was point at Madeleine's heart.**

"Ah!" Amy cried.

**No time to think. She lifted her lance, too, but it was far too heavy. Even if she could strike him, the torque alone would pull her off the horse.**

**King Henry was forty yards away...twenty...**

**Madeleine's shoulder was falling. The tip of the lance was nearly to the ground. And her horse was headed directly **_**at**_** King Henry instead of to his side.**

"**Blast it, what are you doing?" he cried.**

_**Remember, smartest always beats strongest.**_

**Olivia's words were like a trumpet call. Madeleine ungritted her teeth and let out a scream.**

"Shouldn't that tell everyone that she's a girl?" Reagan said.

**The tip of her lance dug into the soil. It bent into a taut C. She felt her body lifting out of the saddle. She pulled back on her boots, releasing them from the stirrup. Freeing her from the horse.**

**The weight of her suit almost broke the lance, but instead she vaulted high into the air.**

"She's pole vaulting?" Ian asked.

**From below her came a bloodthirsty yell. She felt the whoosh of King Henry's lance as it passed beneath her feet and over the top of her horse's saddle. Her lance twanged as it grazed the royal steed's flank. She held tight. As the pole retracted and straightened, for a moment Madeleine was suspended in the air.**

**Her horse faltered below her, confused. Then it began picking up speed. Eyeing its saddle, Madeleine pushed against the lance and released her grip. She plummeted downward, hoping to time her trajectory right. Hoping that the laws of physics she had learned from Xenophilus- angles of momentum, vectors and velocity- would save her life.**

**With a loud **_**whomp**_**, she landed heavily on its back. The horse let out a baffled whinny. Its leg nearly gave out, but fear took charge and it dug it harder.**

Amy let out a sigh. "That was too close."

"That sounds so fun!" Dan cheered.

"Not even think about it," Nellie sternly said.

"No, Dan," Fiske said at the same time, and just as sternly.

"**In the name of-**_** come back here, you coward!**_**" shouted King Henry from behind her.**

**The horse was heading at full tilt toward the palace's stone gate. Four feet thick, it had been opened to let ouy an ornate, gilded black carriage. Now the gate was rising, and the guards stared at her in dismay. "What the devil are you doin'?" one of them screamed, running in her pathway. "Ye'll get yerself kilt!"**

"Kilt? A Scottish skirt?" Dan asked in confusion.

"I think he means kill," Amy said.

**The horse was frothing now. It whinnied again, picking up speed. At the last second, the guard leaped out of the way.**

**Her eyes on the retreating carriage, Madeleine held tight as the horse squeezed through the gap.**

"I never knew, or thought, that a Madrigal could do stunts like that," Madison blurted out.

"Well, like I said before, me and Amy have done some of our own," Dan said proudly.

_Tell me about it,_ Amy thought in her head.

"Everyone's read once, so does anyone want to read again?" Jonah asked.

"I will," Natalie said, grabbing the book out of Hamilton's hand.

* * *

><p><strong>AN:**This is like WAY far off until Amy and Dan's story, but do you think that I should have Amy, Dan, Fiske, and Nellie reveal who Nellie _really_ is. It'll be different then most 'reading the book' fanfic, or any fanfic maybe. I just thought of that idea when I was working on the next chapter.****

****I'm going to start doing "Quote of the Chapter." All the quotes will be from my profile, 'cause I don't really want to search for them all again. So here's this chapters it's from the 39 Clues: ****

****_I can tell you that you will have your hearts broken more by the people you love than by the people you hate. But you must still dare to love. The rewards are worth far more than the risks._- Grace Cahill, the 39 Clues****

****-Catfriend3000****

****P.S: ****Please do review or else I won't be able to continue.(JK! :P)(But seriously do please review -_-)********

******** P.S.S: I want to write a romance songfic with the song "Until I Met You" by the Sunsteak, just to get better at writing romance. But I don't know what pairing to do. I have a poll on my profile and it would make me ELATED if you voted ^^  
><strong>******


	22. Chapter 22: Reading Maddy Cahill part 8

**A/N: Me again! 2 outta 4 stories done! YEAH! This might sound weird, but typing while watch the show Winx Club on a different window makes me type the book faster. If you knew my in real life, you would never think that I like the show. I'm like on page 135, or something like that typing.  
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**Anyways, I combined a like 3 page breaks, just so that Madeleine's it doesn't end up being like 20 parts in all. So this is the last part of her story. Next up is Grace(which is my favorite).**

**Pages:105-114  
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><p>Chapter 22:<p>

Natalie cleared her throat, which most everyone thought was really unnecessary.

"**There, Father! That'll be the tree!" Master Winthrop said, pointing through the window of the royal carriage.**

"**Are you sure, son?" his father said. "It looks like every other tree in the forest."**

"**The knothole.**

"What a knothole?" Dan asked the same as always.

"It's like a hole in a tree, I guess you could say," Fiske supplied.

**It's in the right place. The two branches like the arms of a dancer!" Winthrop barely waited the carriage to stop before he leaped out.**

**Luke Cahill grabbed a torch as his son raced to the knothole. Although it was morning, the thick tree cover made the forest dark. Luke had given clear instructions. They were to reach in to that hole together. He could not risk the clumsiness of an eleven-year- old's fingers destroying anything fragile. **

"Hey!" all the eleven year old in the room yelped.

**If the girl had hidden something crucial- his father's full list of ingredients, perhaps...**

**Or was it **_**their**_** father's? His and the girl? All night, in his dreams, he had seen Madeleine's face- her features transforming into Olivia's and then Gideon's. Her mannerisms were so like Jane's, her voice nearly identical to Katherine's. What if she **_**were**_** his sister? How could he countenance her death?**

"I thought Lucians would kill, or attempt to, anyone that got in their way," Ned grumbled. "Family or not."

"**Father, come!" Luke was snapped back into reality by the voice of his son. His only **_**real**_** family.**

_**You sentimental fool**_**, he scolded himself, walking towards the tree, **_**you must not be swayed by a face. The world is full of traps**_**.**

"If only he wasn't that paranoid, the world would've never suffer through everything the Cahills have done," Hamilton sighed.

"Again, if that did happen none of us would be here," Nellie said.

"Wait, what does, Nellie?" Ned guessed. Nellie nodded her head. "Mean that none of us would be here? I get what means about us, but she sounded like she was talking about herself too."

Amy and Dan stiffed a little, they still didn't know the real identity of Nellie, and wasn't sure that Fiske wanted them to tell them about her. Fiske and Nellie remained perfectly calm. Nellie spoke up for the Madrigals in the room, "Forget what I said. Let's get back to the book." She laughed a little nervously.

No one really forgot what she said, but they didn't question about it anymore. Natalie continued to read, which made Amy and Dan calmed down.

_That was close,_ Amy and Dan said to each other silently.

**Winthrop waited by the knothole, his hands clasped together, dancing from foot to foot with excitement. "May I look? May I at least look?"**

**Luke lite the torch. Ignoring the boy's request, Luke walked passed him and peered into the knothole. He adjusted the torch, but even at full light, all he could see was a gray lump at the bottom.**

"I think I can guess what's in there," Ned mumbled.

**He reached in carefully, hoping it was not a dead animal- or, worse, a live one with sharp teeth.**

**His fingers closed around the limp, shapeless mass. He grasped as much as he could, lifted the thing out, and spread it onto the forest floor.**

**Gray pants. A gray shirt. Gray socks stuffed into rough, black leather shoes. A gray woolen face mask. **

"All clothing," Ian said.

"Well, thank you Captain Obvious," Hamilton snorted.

**Disgusted, Luke reached back in but extracted nothing more than wood chips, acorns, and a handful of agitated ants.**

"**Those were her clothes!" Master Winthrop said. "She was wearing these when she robbed the marketplace!"**

**Luke's mind reviewed the layout of the market. The fruits, vegetables, meats on the south end- and the cobblers, tinkers, and clothing merchants to the north. "She had stolen a change of clothes..." he said. "She needed something presentable for the interview. She changed her outfit here."**

**Winthrop giggled. "She took off all her clothes outdoors?"**

"**She was hiding only **_**clothing**_**!" Luke said, kicking the garments in frustration.**

"**Can you let her go, then, Father?" Winthrop said. "She really is lovely. And...well, have you thought of taking new wife? The king likes to do that, you know-"**

"Gah! How can he be suggesting this!" Madison pretended to gag.

"I'm with you on that, Holt," Natalie agreed.

_**Enough.**_** Luke glared at the boy, and he shrank back.**

**Behind him sounded the clattering of hooves, swift-moving and strong. Luke glanced up to see trees moving near a blind corner behind his son.**

"_**Winthrop!**_**" he shouted, yanking his son off the road with one hand.**

**As they both dove away, a team of colossal horses thundered by. Luke sheltered his son with his body as soil and branches rained over them. He heard his owner driver shouting something in shock, followed by the shriek of horse and the crack of splitting wood.**

"Okay," Dan started, "that tops everything that me and Amy ever did on the clue hunt."

"That really was a close one," Reagan said.

**It was over in an instant, but not before Luke had a chance to see the receding carriage.**

**Its color was black and as deep purple, with a gilded V painted on its side like a bolt of lightning. Through the oval of the rear window, Luke spotted a shock of black hair with a streak of silver.**

_**Vesper**_**.**

"If the same Vesper is in the next story-thing, I'm actually going to believe that he did sell his soul to the devil," Nellie stated.

**Luke felt his blood rise. Nineteen years had only sharpened his rage at the murderer of his father.**

"**What was that?" Master Winthrop asked.**

**Luke's own carriage lay in splinters at the other side of the road, the horses bolting into the woods and the driver wandering dazedly.**

"**It is the man who made me what I am," Luke said between gritted teeth. He grabbed his son by the scruff of the neck. "Follow me!"**

"Page break," Natalie said.

**Damien Vesper hated the countryside. **

"Where is this guy not," Ned said.

**Too much fresh are led to high spirits. And high spirits made people idiots.**

**The smell of fear calmed him full strength from the seat opposite his.**

"**I- believe that was Lord Cahill's carriage," said the valet Hargrove.**

Alistair nodded, which everyone didn't understand why exactly.

**Vesper had never seen a man sweat so much. It was downright unseemly in a grown man. "The **_**late**_** Lord Cahill, I would imagine,"**

"He must really hate the Cahills if he's saying stuff like that," Jonah said.

**Vesper replied. "Alas, drivers these days...so reckless! I will have to speak to mine."**

**He smiled agreeably, by the man remained stone-face. How dreary. Years ago, the help could carry on a really conversation- not just sit like limps, expecting to be entertained!**

_**Just as well**_**, he thought. **_**This one had outlived his usefulness**_**.**

Everyone knew what Vesper had in mind for Hargrove.

"**You did good work, Hargrove," he said, holding out his hand. "Took the training quickly, used uncanny powers of observation. I impress at how you were able to recognize the ring. I will have it now."**

"**Of course, Your Lordship, but you promised five hundred pounds in advance." Hargrove's sweat was dripping from his nose, which struck Vesper as inconsiderate. Especially from one who expected rewards.**

"**I said I would **_**advance**_** you five hundred pounds," Vesper replied. "Which sum would be payable upon receipt of the ring!"**

"**I- I have seen the inscription on it," Hargrove blurted out. "And for another few pounds, I can tell you what I think it means-"**

"Yeah right!" Sinead snorted. "If both Gideon and Olivia couldn't figure it out, I highly doubt that a valet could."

"_**Inscription**_**?" This was getting interesting. In recent years, Vesper had heard of a secret ring. But he had never connected this ring to Gideon Cahill.**

**It had taken him nearly two decades to track down Olivia. He'd intended to force out the secrets to Gideon's serum but failed again. How delightful to discover there was a daughter. When he'd seen her hiding at the funeral, everything just...fit.**

"Oh great," Dan started, "So the Cahill, who we were trying to get together didn't know about Madeleine, but this crazy psycho- even more murderous- family does? How does that seem right?"

Amy rolled her eyes at her brother's rant.

**She was fiddling with a ring. And his last memory flashed back to her father and the last conversation he'd had with Olivia. He thought she was a grieving widow then, and not another conniving Cahill.**

**Now he knew better.**

"**What inscription did you see?" he pressed. Following Madeleine, bribing the servants- all of that had been child's play. He had no room for his lackey's stubborn attitude.**

"Such a hard life wasn't?" Madison said sarcastically.

"**If I am to reveal the ring," Hargrove said, swallowing hard, "I must have your word that-"**

**Vesper heard a soft zing. Hargrove fell silent, his mouth agape. He clutched the side of his neck and fell to the ground.**

_Madeleine's potion, _everyone thought.

"**Do not play with me, man," Vesper said. But as he knelt over Hargrove, he heard another zing, and another. He flatted himself to the floor and slapped Hargrove in the face, hard.**

**That was when he notice the small dart stuck in the servant's neck.**

_**Bandits**_**. Vesper grabbed a firearm, a long arquebus,**

"And that is..." Hamilton asked.

"It's a type of gun I think," Ian supplied.

**from under the carriage seat. "Move!" he cried to the driver. "Faster!"**

**His coachman whipped the horses. They took off through the woods, the carriage bouncing wildly. Vesper climbed out of the rear and nearly vaulted toward the driver.**

**A set of hands grabbed him from behind.**

**Vesper twisted his body around. He dug his elbow into the attacker's neck and raised his arquebus high.**

**With a grunt, he brought the butt down hard. The attacker tried to duck away, but the gun caught his shoulder. Vesper could see him now- slender, dressed in black, including a mask that covered most of the face.**

**Lifting his foot, he gave the thief a kick.**

**With a cry, the black-garbled figure fell over the side.**

**His gloved fingers gripped the railing, and he struggled to keep his feet off the swift-moving ground.**

**Vesper caught his breath. With a smile, he pinched the gloved hand's pinkie and lifted it off the railing. "This little piggy went to the market..."**

**He flicked the next finger off, and the attacker sank lower.**

**Now the bandit's feet were scraping across the roots and ruts. He let out an odd, high-pitched scream- almost a woman's voice.**

"If an eleven year old can figure out that she a woman from like a twenty second look, how can he not?" Ned asked in disbelief.

**The carriage bounced violently again. Vesper flew backwards and felt the small of his back hit the joint of the carriage frame. He clenched his teeth with the pain.**

**The fun was over.**

**He lifted the arquebus and pointed it at the intruder's head, which was fast sinking over the edge of the carriage. Releasing the shuttlecock, he placed his finger on the trigger.**

"Ah!" Reagan and Amy let out.

"Relax you two," Jonah said. "He obviously doesn't kill her."

"It's still scary to hear, or even be in, a close to death moment," Nellie answered.

**A deafening crack spilt in the air. Vesper felt the recoil of the firearm, the smell of gunpowder. But his shot had gone off course. He rose into the air and then smacked back down sharply. The carriage was careening side to side, its wheels tilting inward at the top, wobbing.**

"**The axle!" the driver shouted. "She's splitting milord!"**

"YEAH!" Dan cheered.

**On the edge of carriage, Vesper caught a glimpse of the intruder's fingers, struggling to regain hold. This bandit had dismaying agility and strength.**

_**Forget him, he can't hold on forever**_**, Vesper scolded himself. He caught a glimpse of Hargrove. He had to get the ring from that fool and then jump off before the carriage smashed into splinters. He dove into the cabin, reaching into the pockets of the unconscious valet. **_**Where did he hide it**_**?**

**There. His money belt. Vesper ripped it open and pulled out the golden prize.**

"So that's how he got it," Fiske mumbled.

"She's done a terrible job of protecting that ring," Ian said.

"She did the best she can!" Amy snapped.

**With a wild, triumphant smile, he sat up and held it high. There was enough light to see a string of tiny symbols.**

**Holding tight to the ring, he scrambled toward the front of the carriage. He couldn't keep his footing. The wheels were slanting, the carriage bottom scraping the ground. In a moment the axle would split in two. The driver's seat was already empty. **_**So much for loyalty**_**.**

"No, it's just that that driver is smart," Madison said.

**As Vesper prepared to jump, he saw a movement beneath him. He tried to look down, but his feet lifted off the surface. He was flying.**

**His vision filled with the trunk of a thick oak tree, racing closer. He drew his arms in for protection. And he screamed.**

**The last thing he saw before him was before impact was a great black shadow.**

"Page break!" Natalie announced.

"**Help!" Master Winthrop cried out. It had begun to rain. He felt scared. Why had Father run ahead of him? It was dark and cold.**

**There. Just ahead. He could see Father in his cloak, crouching on the ground.**

**At that moment he was glad for the rain. Maybe it would disguise his crying. Father never like it when he cried.**

"Same with ours," Ian murmured.

**As he drew closer, he slowed. The carriage-the one that had nearly killed them- was scattered across the forest in pieces. It looked as if Father had taken the whole thing apart himself.**

"He couldn't but a Tomas could," Hamilton said proudly.

"**Father?" he said. Master Winthrop crept closer, his heart beating like a bunny rabbit's. His father remained silent, his back to Winthrop. In the distance, two men had been tied to an old oak tree. He recognized old Hargrove, and the second man was dressed in a livery suit. There appeared to have been a third captive, but he had managed to escape, the ropes in a heap beside the tree. **

"Who do you think tied up who? Vesper tied up Madeleine? Or Madeleine tied up Vesper?" Dan blurted out.

"Probably Madeleine tied up Vesper, she might not have taken the ring, though. She probably thinks that Luke still has it," Ian reasoned.

"**Are they...alive?" Winthrop said, placing his hand on his father's shoulder.**

**But Luke Cahill's eyes remained fixed on the ground in front of them. It had been smoothed. Etched deeply into the soil, in precise letters, was a message that made Winthrop's blood run cold:**

Natalie showed the writing.

"I had the same reaction when Mr. McIntyre first told us to beware the Madrigals," Dan said being perfectly honest.

"Why did he tell you that, when you are Madrigal?" Ted asked.

"We don't really know why," Amy lied.

"I'm pretty sure that Madrigal is a type of song writing," Jonah hesitantly said.**(I looked it up and that's what it said)  
><strong>

"We're at the end of the story," Natalie said looking at the next page.

"Who's next?" Sinead asked.

"Grace Cahill," Natalie answered slowly.

"GRACE?" Amy and Dan jumped out of their seats.

"Do either of you want to read?" Reagan said.

"I will," Amy calmed down and took the book.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I don't know all the ages of everyone so they are all the same age that they were when the clue hunt started(i.e Amy, Ian,(I think) Hamilton are all 14; Dan, the Holt sisters, Natalie are all 11; Nellie is 20; etc...)**

**I'm just rereading the 10th book(for who know what number of times) and Dan says that Nellie's a Madrigal in front of everyone, but right now no one knows how Nellie's connected to the Cahills nor that she's a Madrigal.**

**Sorry for all the typos up ahead, my cat likes to step on my keyboard(which I don't get), when I'm typing this, so random letters, weird spacing appear. Also my cat hits the delete key so words or punctuation disappear that I can't catch. So no promises that this isn't 100% accurate to the book.  
><strong>

**-Catfriend3000**

**P.S: School starts in like two weeks so I might not be able to update as fast as I am now, though I would like to. And on September 1&2(I think) my whole grade is going on a fall-out trip. It's mainly where we get to know the new people in the class.  
><strong>


	23. Chapter 23: Reading Grace Cahill part 1

**A/N:****I went to an Oakland A's game yesterday(they won 5-6 against someone but, I'm too lazy to get the ticket and find out who), and got a sunburn on my nose. I always get a sunburn on my nose, I've never gotten a sunburn anywhere else. Well I've had like two in life**** so far****, I guess I can't really say 'always' but it does annoy me. And it hurts when whenever I touch it. But on a happier note...here's a new chapter! ^^ **

** YAY! Grace's story! Now that I'm re-reading and typing this, I notice some more details that I've forgotten, like the being in an airplane feeling that Grace descries in this part. Sorry about the shortness of these chapters. But, hey, I update like every two days or so, so I personally think that makes(kinda) up for the shortness, which I do apologize. And YAY! to that everyone has read now once. I don't have to try and remember who's read now! I get to start from the beginning again!  
><strong>

**For, I don't know uh...let's say 15, the 15 time I don't own anything.  
><strong>

** Pages:115-119  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Chapter 23:<p>

Amy read slowly.

**Grace Cahill-1942**

**1942. Most of the world was at war. In every corner of the globe, people were fighting and dying for one cause or another.**

"Was World War II caused by the Cahills?" Nellie said looking at mostly Fiske.

"Honestly, I don't really know," Fiske said sheepishly and scratched the back of his head.

**And what was Grace Cahill doing at this critical moment in her planet's history?**

**Changing diapers.**

_**Not diapers- nappies**_**, she corrected herself, deftly fastening a large safety pin at each of the child's small hips. Here in Europe they used British term. **

"I didn't know that Grace lived in Europe," Alistair mumbled.

**Baby Fiske burped loudly and tried to wiggle out of her grasp. Grace held on with a firm hand. Parts of the lawn at her family's villa in Monte Carlo were so steeply sloped that a wayward toddle might roll all the way down the bluff and drop into the sparkling waters of the Mediterranean. **

**She called him Kamikaze sometimes, after those crazy pilots from the **_**other**_** war- the one in the Pacific. Fiske always seemed to be looking for some great peril to hurl himself into.**

"You?" Ian raised his eyebrow at him.

Fiske just shrugged.

**The little stinker was walking, so it had become nearly impossible to keep him out of trouble. He was a year old now. Grace could scarcely believe it had been that long since...**

**She had gotten good at fighting back tears. Her stomach, though, was harder to control. She recognized the feeling from her flying lessons- **

"I started to learn how to fly at age fourteen," Nellie said. "She's like twelve, right?"

"It's not that big of a difference," Ted looked at her weirdly.

**the sensations of hitting an air pocket and dropping five hundred feet in a matter of seconds. She experienced it on solid ground every time she thought of her mother.**

"**You had a healthy baby son," the doctor had informed James Cahill, "but your wife..." He said more, but their father's raw, tortured breathing filled in the blanks for Grace and her older sister, Beatrice. **

Dan made a face at the mention of Beatrice's name.

"What was that?" Reagan asked.

"You'll probably see soon," Amy said.

**Father shed not a single tear over the death of his wife, but he was never the same, His reaction seemed more appropriate to a record-setting marathon run than an expression of grief- hyperventilation and drenching sweats.**

**Not that the Cahill daughters had much opportunity to develop an instinct for their father's emotions. The time he had spent in Monte Carlo since the funeral could be measured in days, possibly hours. James Cahill was so devastated by the loss of his wife that he wouldn't even look at his newborn son. **

Amy slowed down the reading even more.

**He had turned to travel, as if trying to outrun his grief. The family had not heard from him in months, save for the occasional postcard from exotic locales- Rio de Janeiro, Baffin Island, Ulaanbaatar.**

"I have _never_ heard of those places," Dan said.

"Of course you haven't," Ian muttered. "Rio de Janeiro is located in Brazil."

"Baffin Island is in Canada," Alistair continued.

"And Ulaanbaatar is in Mongolia," Sinead finished.

**Baby Fiske yanked a croquet hoop out of the ground, and Grace barely managed to wrest it from his hands before he could plunge the ends into his eyes. How was it possible to love a child so deeply when he was the author of all the suffering in your life? His birth had cost Grace her mother. And it was costing Grace her father, too. **

Everyone was silent.

**The picture of James Cahill walking out of the door was permanently impressed on her retinas. He'd claimed to be leaving on business "for a few days." But his vast pile of luggage- enough to require a second taxi to follow him to the airfield-revealed the lie. She could still feel Father's arms around her as he said good-bye. He'd seemed like a drowning man holding on to a life preserver. Beatrice had noticed the same thing.**

**Then he was gone- without so much as a sideways glance at the bassinet that held his infant son.**

**Fiske reached for the croquet hoop, howling in frustrations as Grace held it just beyond his grasp. **

"I really was like you," Fisk said to Dan.

"How is that?" Jonah asked.

"I think it's because that they were both troublemakers," Nellie snickered.

"What's that supposed to mean?" Dan said.

**She scooped him up in her arms and carried him, kicking and screaming, to the main house. Someday, she told herself, her brother would be a contributing member of society. Just as someday this war would be over, and someday Father would come home. That was what had become: too many**_** somedays**_**; not enough **_**nows**_**.**

"**How can you take care of that little beast?" came a sharp voice behind her.**

"I think I can guess who that is," Dan said jokingly.

**Grace wheeled. She hadn't seen Beatrice standing by the doorway.**

"That's one loving sister," Hamilton said.

"**Someone has to," Grace replied. "Giselle won't. Leave it to Father to abandon us with a useless governess."**

"**How dare you speak that way of Father?" Beatrice snapped. "Did you expect him to go on as if nothing happened? He lost his wife."**

"**And we lost our mother," Grace put in.**

**Beatrice pointed an accusing finger at her brother. "Thanks to **_**him**_**!"**

"How can she be saying that?" Reagan jumped out of chair.

**Grace hugged Fiske, shielding him from the acid in their sister's words. Could Beatrice blame a baby for what had happened to their mother? Or was it that the older girl was so miserable herself that she had to make everyone else miserable as well? The sisters had never been close. Yet since Edith Cahill's death, the chasm between them had grown ever wider.**

"I'm still wondering how Grace talked her into adopting us." Amy muttered.

"You lived with her?" Ian raised her eyebrow.

"Well, not exactly. She lived in a different apartment from us. Because her apartment 'didn't allow kids'." Dan said with air quotes.

"She hired Au pairs for us. Some didn't even last for more than a week," Amy added.

"And Nellie lasted the longest, I'm amusing?" Sinead asked.

"Yup!" Dan said cheerfully.

Before anyone could ask another question, Amy started to read again.

**Didn't Beatrice see that Grace was suffering, too? That Grace would have given anything to reverse the events of the past year- to bring Mother back, to undo the pain that was tearing the family apart and had already driven Father away? The one thing she wouldn't change was Fiske. How could Beatrice not love the bundle of giggles and mischief**

"Sounds like Daniel- well the mischief part at least," Natalie laughed.

**Motherless- and basically fatherless, too. James Cahill hadn't bothered to name his only son. He had left that to Beatrice. **_**Fiske**_**. It was Beatrice's secret revenge on her brother, condemning him to a childhood of fistfights and taunting.**

"Did you two ever get along?" Madison asked Fiske.

"Honestly, no."

**Grace ran her fingers through the little boy's fine blond hair. This hellion was the only good thing that had happened to them in a long time. **

**Fiske repaid the sentiment with a kick to her stomach that sent her reeling. His feet were already pumping like pistons by the time she dropped him. Teetering unsteadily, he ran out the door to his croquet hoop and who knew what other dangers.**

**With an apologetic glance at her sister, Grace followed.**

"Honestly, I can't imagine you like that, Uncle Fiske." Dan said. Some people did raise an eyebrow towards him.

"Does anyone want to read?" Fiske asked to get the attention away from him.

"I might as well," Mary-Todd offered.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I know that I forgot the 'Quote of the Chapter' that I said that I was going to do in the last one, but that was because the A/N was long enough without it. So here's two to make up for it:**

**"Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the richest and smartest and hottest..."- Natalie Kabra, the 39 Clues  
>"Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain!"- Oz, Wizard of Oz<strong>

**No promises that there will be another Ian/Amy moment, my last attempt was pretty bad. I was thinking of something, but I don't know if I want to put it in... you never know. And I feel like that Dan talked too much in this chapter, and in up coming chapters too.  
><strong>

**-Catfriend3000**

**P.S: Sorry about the grammatical(is that the right word? something like that, anyways) errors in my story.  
><strong>


	24. Chapter 24: Reading Grace Cahill part 2

**A/N: I'll try and make this quick. I feel like there are some people talking too much and too little. I would make Eisenhower and Mary-Todd talk, if I knew what was IC for them. Oh well... C'est la vie(That's life) and que sera sera(Whatever will be, will be(or something like that)).**

**I don't own anything as usual(do I really have to keep doing this? After 24 chapters? Ah, whatever, I'll still do it, just so that I don't get sued or anything)  
><strong>

**Pages:119-125  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Chapter 24:<p>

**Sleep did not come easily to Grace these days. It had started with the bombing across the border in France.**

"It might be scary being that close to a war," Amy shivered.

"Well, be prepared for a war now; between us and the Vesper," Dan said like he wasn't afraid of anything.

**They were safe- Monaco was neutral so far, and even France had quieted under German occupation. But slumber continued to elude her.**

**Clad in her nightdress, she gazed out the window at the dark Mediterranean. From the nursery in the next room came the buzz saw of Fiske's snoring. Another quality Beatrice found so endearing. **

"She's joking right?" Reagan said.

**Enlarged adenoids.**

**Grace frowned. There was a second sound- a low rumble- distinct from her brother's.**

**An outboard motor? She remembered the times when a pleasure craft dotted the sea, day and night. Now it was too dangerous. France was under German control, and Italy was only ten miles away.**

**Yet when she squinted into the gloom she could make out a small boat a few hundred yards off shore, almost directly opposite of their villa. A weak flicker was coming from the wheelhouse.**

_**Are their lights not working?**_** Grace wondered. **_**And now they're lost in the dark?**_

**During wartime, wandering off course could be a fatal mistake.**

**And then she recognized the pattern of short and long flashes.**

"Morse code!" Hamilton and Dan called out.

**Her eyes widened. This was not the product of any guttering lamp. It was something she'd learned from her father several summers ago.**

**Morse code.**

Hamilton and Dan looked proudly.

**It took a moment to decipher the opening salvo of dots and dashes.**

**JC**

**James Cahill! The message was for her father!**

"I thought that he was away," Madison said.

"They probably don't know that," Sinead responded.

**She scrambled for a pencil and paper, converting the dots and dashes into language as she expertly transcribed the message. She'd been only seven or eight when he'd taught her, yet she didn't miss a single letter. Beatrice received high praise and high marks from their private tutor,**

"Beatrice?" Dan raised an eyebrow.

"Thinking about it, we don't know much about her. Even though, she was out guardian for seven years," Amy said.

**but Grace was the sister whose quick and nimble mind was capable of occasional brilliance. This wasn't boasting; it was simply the truth.**

**VS KNOW ABOUT BULLS EYE...GO TO WHITE HOUSE AM...FIND GSP...**

"The 'VS' probably means the Vesper. Considering they're in every story so far." Ted guessed.

"Do they mean the White House in D.C?" Reagan asked.

**A pause. Was that all of it?**

**The Morse code resumed:**

**TORCH IS MORE THAN IT SEEMS...**

**She peered out, waiting breathlessly for the rest. More flashes came, and her wrist jumped to action. But no- it was merely the message repeating.**

**At last, the motors swelled and the small craft began to move off.**

_**Come back!**_** she wanted to scream. **_**What does it all mean?**_

**A final burst of code:**

**PROTECT THE RING AT ALL COST**

"Gideon's ring, for sure," Nellie thought aloud.

"**What ring?" she said aloud. But the boat was gone. **

**She had no idea what any of it meant, but one thing was certain: The people on that boat believed they were communicating with James Cahill.**

**Grace had not lived to the ripe old of thirteen without realizing that there was something special about Father's family. Her parents had told her Beatrice how Cahills had shaped human history for centuries. Some of the most famous people of all time were cousins- Shakespeare, Mozart, Abraham Lincoln, and even Babe Ruth. **

Dan's eyes popped out, like he didn't know that. "You're serious? Why didn't anyone tell me?"**(Well, it never did state that until now in the books)  
><strong>

Most everyone shrugged. "I would think that it would be easy to figure out, if you know that Cahills are most every famous people." Natalie rolled her eyes at him.

**Secret words had passed between her parents in whisper- **_**Lucian, Janus, Tomas, Ekaterina,**_** and one that seemed especially mysterious, **_**Madrigal**_**. There was also a number that kept coming up- 39. It had been Father's football number at Harvard, but Grace suspected it meant much, much more.**

**Grace didn't know the specifics of Cahills business- just that James and Edith Cahill had been up to their neck in it. But now she suspected that when Mother died, James had abandoned his Cahill responsibilities along with his children. The people on that boat were trying to communicate with an agent who had dropped out. Another vital role was going unfulfilled.**

"If every agent did that, what the world would become?" Sinead asked half sarcastically.

**She stared at the cryptic words on the pad. The message made as much sense to her as Fiske's childish burbling. VS- somebody initials? No, then it would be **_**VS KNOWS**_**. This was **_**VS KNOW**_**. So the Vs had to be a group of people. But who?**

"Vesper for sure now," Ted confirmed on his guess.

_**BULLS EYE**_**- a direct hit. In a war, that could mean almost anything. **_**GO TO THE WHITE HOUSE**_**. Surely not the one where the president lived?**

_**AM**_**- as in morning? Or that could be initials, too. Also **_**GSP**_**. Were these people or things? More confusing still, **_**TORCH**_** and **_**RING**_**- two random items.**

**She opened her bedroom door and stepped out into the hall. Beatrice would know what to do. She was two years older, and Beatrice was the one their parents had been grooming for a major role in the Cahill family.**

"She never appeared on a list of Cahill agents that I've seen," Ian stated.

"I remember that she was scared about the clue hunt at Grace's funeral." Amy looked back.

**Grace had only been included when it turned out that her sister had no stomach for flying lessons.**

"That sounds like her," Dan nodded.

**Beatrice always had a fuller understanding of the sudden trips their parents used to take on urgent Cahill matters. Maybe she could decipher the strange communication.**

"**Bea?" She peeked into her sister's room. "Are you asleep?"**

"**I **_**was**_**," came the reply. No one expressed annoyance more thoroughly than Beatrice Cahill. And she had plenty of practice at it. Everything annoyed her.**

"She sounds...pleasant." Ned said.

"**I have to show you something." Grace told her sister of that boat that had come, flashed its message, and disappeared just as abruptly. "Here- I'm turning on the light."**

**Blinking in discomfort, Beatrice sat up in bed and examined the paper Grace proffered. "It's gibberish."**

"**Gibberish doesn't come in Morse code," Grace insisted. "It was meant for Father."**

"**Anybody with a message for Father should know that he hasn't lived here for more than a year," Beatrice retorted.**

"**Not if it's a Cahill thing," Grace argued. "The family is scatter around the world. Father might have been keeping in touch with them some other way. You understand more about Cahill business than I do."**

"**I understand enough about Cahill business to stay well out of it," Beatrice said caustically. "There's nothing about that lot that interests me."**

"I'm sure there are a lot of other people would disagree," Nellie said.

"**Maybe this is about the war! What if Father and his contacts could help put a stop to it?" Nothing would take precedence over that. Millions had died already, and the conflict only seemed to be spreading.**

"**Whatever it is you **_**think**_** you know about Cahills, let me set you straight. Our family has wasted centuries playing foolish games, stabbing each other in the back and reading all sort of meaning into meaningless things. If one more coded message shows up for Father, I think I'll scream."**

**Grace stiffened like a pointer. "There were others?"**

**Her sister shrugged derisively. "I don't waste my time trying to decipher every moonbeam."**

"**But, Beatrice," Grace pleaded, "you're the one Mother and Father chose to share the secrets of our family with. Don't you want that?"**

"I do," Natalie mumbled. She was thinking about all the files that Isabel never showed her or Ian.

"**What I want," Beatrice said firmly, "is to be a regular, normal person. The Cahill would isn't normal. I intend to ignore the whole thing. And if you know what's good for you"- she cast her sister a sharp look- "you'll follow my example. Now, go to sleep!"**

**Grace looked into her sister's eyes. There was another emotion there, concealed by Beatrice's perpetually sour face.**

**Fear.**

**She couldn't decipher the message any more than Grace could. But one thing Beatrice **_**did**_** understand was that high stakes meant high risks. She wanted no part of the Cahill world because it scared her to death.**

"I can't remember how many times the clue hunt scared me half to death," Amy said under her breath, not wanting to be heard by anyone.

**Grace withdrew, more disappointed than angry. As usual, there was no talking to Beatrice, who was an immovable mountain when she made up her mind about something.**

**She looked around at the sumptuously furnished home. Their villa in Monte Carlo was spacious and luxurious, with vast banks of windows that, in daylight, provided breathtaking views of both the mountains and the sea. It had cost millions, and it was only one of five similar residences James Cahill owned around the globe. **

"Was the one in Switzerland one of the five?" Dan asked.

"Yes. Like I told you, Grace and Beatrice visited there when they were younger." Fiske said.

**The wealth alone spoke of their family's power, but money was only part of the story. The huge house was filled with artwork and artifacts Mother and Father had collected on their extended travels. These hailed from all continents- from every remote corner of the map. Perhaps Beatrice could ignore all this proof of the Cahills' special role in human history, but not Grace. The world was in chaos. **

"That's no difference from today," Hamilton grumbled

**Father had taken himself out of the picture, and his elder daughter had chosen to do likewise. The mantle must fall to Grace.**

_**I have to do this myself.**_

**Her eyes traveled to the paper and her resolved mingled with unease. Willingness to do something wasn't the same as knowing what needed to be done.**

**She set her jaw. Her mother's death; her father's disappearance- these were things beyond her control. Her immediate family was unraveling, but **_**this**_** part of it- her parents' involvement with the Cahill clan- could still be saved.**

"That is a lot to think of at one time," Hamilton said.

_**If**_** she could decipher the cryptic message.**

**The question remained: How?**

"Would anyone like to start reading now?" Mary-Todd offered.

"I will," Jonah said, for the first time in a while.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Sorry in advance if you like Beatrice, it's just that Amy, Dan, and Nellie(obviously) don't. I can't really say that I like her or not, considering that she only appears for like the first 45 pages of the first book and is mentioned a few times after that. But out of what she's appeared of, I'm leaning on that I don't really like her. And we don't really know much about her, so...  
><strong>

**I find this quote to be true in the sense of the 39 Clues series.  
>Quote: "The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off."- Gloria Steinem<strong>

**-Catfriend3000  
><strong>


	25. Chapter 25: Reading Grace Cahill part 3

**A/N: I'm taking a "small" break from reviewing my** Mandarin **for school(_joy_) to post this chapter.  
><strong>

**I don't own anything...sadly.  
><strong>

**Pages:125-135  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Chapter 25(I think):<p>

Jonah browsed to the right place and started to read.

**Madame Fourchette was in a towering rage. "What shall I say to your father when you grow up ignorant, you silly girl?" the tutor shrilled. "Why can you not be more like your sister?"**

"**Impossible," Grace said blandly. "Beatrice is one of a kind."**

Dan, Amy, and Nellie laughed at Grace's comment. Everyone else looked somewhat amused.

"**Beatrice has done her assignment, and you have written not a single word! I will have the reason why!"**

**There was a reason, not that Grace was going to share it with Madame. For the past week, her every waking moment- and even her troubled dreams- had been devoted to trying to make head or tail of the message from the mystery boat. She had scoured the villa's extensive library and even begged entry into the larger one at the Prince' Palace, home of the ruling Grimaldis. **

"That's going a bit far, don't you think?" Ted said.

"But with the Cahills, you never know what can happen," Amy said.

**As far as she could figure, there was absolutely nothing to connect people called Vs, a bull's eye, the White House, morning, a torch, and a ring. As for GSP, that was the most baffling part of all. She could not seriously believe that her father was being directed to find a German short-haired pointer, the Georgia State Patrol, or a green spotted puffer fish.**

"Is there such thing as a green spotted puffer fish?" Reagan asked.

"They really do exist . They're actually brackish fish; meaning that they live in a mix of salt water and fresh water. Though most pet stores sell them as fresh water fish." Sinead explained.

"**As I suspected, you have nothing to say for yourself," Madame Fourchette told her sternly. "Since you cannot seem to write your essay, you will instead five hundred times 'I must complete the schoolwork assigned to me' At once, **_**s'il vous **__**plait."**_

**Grace felt a headache beginning to gather behind her eyes. The thought of all that mindless scribbling when there was important work to be done made her both angry and depressed.**

**As she descended the spiral staircase, she heard the sound of breaking glass coming from the entrance hall. Fiske, no doubt, destroyed yet another priceless piece of art.**

Jonah raised an eyebrow at Fiske for a moment.

**Where was Giselle? The answer come from the radio in the parlor- music from the BBC in London. The governess enjoyed English programming much more than she enjoyed trying to control a one-year-old wrecking crew.**

**Grace sat down at the table and scribbled out three quick lines. Great. Only 497 more to go. She was about to begin line 4 when the music stopped in mid song.**

"**We interrupt this program for a news bulletin. The Allied invasion of North Africa has begun. Yesterday morning British and American troops landed at Algiers, Oran, and Casablanca in a three-pronged attack known as Operation Torch. The Casablanca force, under the command of American general George S. Patton..."**

**The report went on, but Grace had heard enough.**

"If only all the clues came that easy," Dan sighed.

_**George S. Patton- GSP!**_

**Operation **_**Torch**_**. And Casablanca- that was Spanish for **_**white house**_**! **

"Casablanca is also a type of flower," Nellie offered the information.

**The Morse message hadn't been about the White house in Washington at all! Father was being sent to Casablanca to seek out General Patton, who was commanding Operation Torch!**

**It was bizarre, and yet from a Cahill point of view, it made perfect sense. If Ben Franklin, Napoleon, and the Russian royal family could be Cahills, why not George Patton? And surely the general would be able to decode the rest of the message-the Vs, the bull's- eye, and the ring.**

"I haven't heard that he was a Cahill. But if he was one, he'd probably be a Lucian," Ian said.

"If he's not a Cahill, then he's a Vesper?" Madison asked.

"Maybe," Ted mumbled.

**Her heart pounded with the exhilaration of discovery, but the feeling soon turned to despair. Father was completely out of reach. By the time she could pass this information on him, Operation Torch would be in the history books. Could she get in touch with General Patton? How? Through the American embassy maybe?**

_**Oh, sure. The US military will put an invasion on hold and call up a general on the say-so of a thirteen-year-old girl.**_

"You were lucky to have your babysitter come with you on the clue hunt," Natalie pointed at Nellie.

"Au pair," Dan and Nellie corrected.

**The dilemma nearly tore her in two. Now that it was clear that the Morse code message was connected to Operation Torch, who knew how vital Father's mission might be? If the Cahills were as powerful as Grace had heard, it could turn the tide of the entire war! And then millions would be spared the kind of suffering Graces' family had known.**

**The world needed Father, and he was nowhere to be found.**

**She stopped short, frowning. No, that wasn't quite true. The world needed a Cahill- and Father was not the only one. Grace was a Cahill, too.**

_**What am I thinking? I'm not in charge of saving the planet! I'm thirteen years old! I'm not even allowed out of the house without permission!**_

"Grace is kind of like us in the beginning of the clue hunt," Dan smiled.

"Who would have thought," Ian smirked.

**Casablanca was hundreds of miles away, across the Mediterranean. It was difficult to reach under the best of circumstances. Right now the place was under attack. She'd never get there. And even if she did, she'd probably be killed.**

**The feeling that came over her at that moment caused her to put down her pen and stand up behind the mahogany table, shoulders squared. It was the deep sense that, against all logic, she **_**belonged**_** in this fight. It was her place to be there, no matter what the consequences.**

**She had no way of knowing it, but members of her family had been answering that call for nearly 450 years.**

"Page break," Jonah paused.

**Monaco to Casablanca.**

**Overland, it was a journey of more than a thousand miles, across defended borders, through countries in conflict. And then she's still need to traverse the Strait of Gibraltar to get to Africa.**

**Travel by ship would be more direct, but the Mediterranean was dangerous during wartime. More to the point, boats were slow. By the time she reached Casablanca, General Patton might be gone. And the opportunity- whatever it was- would be lost.**

"Well, timing _is_ everything," Ned said.

**An airplane, then. Maybe, just maybe, a lone plane could carry her to North Africa without attracting the attention of all warrior powers.**

**Grace's brow darkened. If the warring powers weren't going to be thrilled about this, Beatrice was going to be even less thrilled- **

"She should have seen her when we told Mr. McIntyre we chose the clue," Dan laughed at the memory.

"I wish I could have been there," Nellie whined. "It would've been funny to see."

"Well you did get my CherryGarcia ice cream that day, so we're even," Dan retorted.

**not to mention Giselle and Madame Fourchette. And somewhere, when the news of Grace's disappearance reached Father, he was going to blow a gasket- if James Cahill even remembered the family he'd left stranded in Monte Carlo.**

**Well, there was simply nothing for it. Cahills had been changing world for centuries. If there was ever a world that needed changing, it was this one.**

**Grace's suitcase lay open on the bed, empty but for one item- her passport. The future she was heading into was so completely unknowable that she couldn't think of a single necessary thing to pack. Fresh clothing? Where would she find a place change? A toothbrush? Was there running water on a battlefield? In the end, she pocketed the passport and stuffed the suitcase back in her closet. The only thing that seemed fairly certain was that she would be running for her life. Luggage would only slow her down.**

"Not if you have the right resources," Natalie bragged.

**What was really required here was money. Cash opened doors and greased palms and hired planes. **

"You got that right," Amy grumbled.

**There was plenty of it in Father's safe, but only he had the combination. This was not for lack of trying. Many times Grace had scoured the house for a hint of what numbers might be. Not that she intended to steal from her father. She'd always had a sense that access to the safe might come in handy one day. And, she reflected ruefully, she'd been right.**

"It's not that bad," Ian said slowly.

"You talk as if you done something like that, Kabra," Hamilton pointed out.

"Not stealing money, of course. I have plenty of that," Everyone rolled their eyes, except for Natalie. "I did something a little different,"

**Stealthily, she crept into her father's study. She could hear Fiske in the kitchen, demanding cookie in English, and Giselle arguing with him in French. Grace smiled in spite of herself. As if a baby would understand or even care. She had little doubt that her brother would win his cookie. He rarely took no for an answer. She felt a sharp pang at the sound of his shrill voice. She was about to abandon him- just as Father had abandoned them. She had every intention of coming back, but the mission she had planned for herself was fraught with so many risks that she couldn't wrap her mind around them all. And those were just the hazards she could foresee.**

**She was not like Beatrice, the eternal doom crier.**

Dan and Amy snickered.

**But she had to admit to herself the very real possibility that this journey might turn out to be a one-way trip.**

_**If I die, who will be here to love Fiske?**_

Fiske winced at that comment, imagining what life without Grace.

**She shook herself and returned to business. The safe. **

**She already knew the first number to try- 39. Whatever it meant, it was central to the legacy of the Cahill family. She was convinced that her father would use Cahill references in his combination. Mozart's birthday, perhaps- James was a huge admirer of their composer cousin. January 27.**

**Holding her breath, she twisted the dial. 39-1-27.**

_**Locked.**_

**Abraham Lincoln, then. February 12- 39-2-12.**

_**Locked.**_

**She tried Howard Carter- May 9; Emperor Puyi of China- February 7; and the Grand Duchess Anastasia- June 18. **

"Funny how all of them we followed on the clue hunt at some point," Dan whispered to Amy, or tried to at least since everyone heard him.

"Except for Lincoln," Amy responded.

**By now, beads of perspiration stood out on her brow. It was sinking in that there were hundreds of famous relatives- and dozens of numbers associated with each of them- dating back to the fire that destroyed Gideon Cahill's lab in 1507.**

_**Wait a minute! 1507! 15-07!**_

**She turned the knob- 39-15-07. Fingers trembling, she reached for the handle.**

"It can't be _that_ easy," Natalie rolled her eyes.

**Her face fell. Locked.**

**She'd known from the start that she might fail in the adventure.**

_**But not before I get out of Monte Carlo! Not before I even get out of the house!**_

**All at once, her downcast features rearranged themselves into a quizzical expression. She tried the numbers again, this time in a different order.**

**15-7-39.**

**There was a metallic click, and she swung the heavy safe door open.**

"Not even involving any challenges, that's no fun," Natalie huffed.

_**Wow.**_

**It was more money than she expected- a lot more. Stacks of bills bound with rubber bands- French francs, British pounds, Italian lire, German marks, and American dollars. There was even a canvas bag of gold coins. She took a leather briefcase with her father's initials and stuffed in as much as would fit. In normal times, it would have to be enough to take her to the North Pole and back. But this was war. Everything was different now.**

"**I'm going out for some air," she called to whoever might be listening. The lump in her throat as the door shut behind her was larger than she'd anticipated. This wasn't home, really. But it was the last place Mother had lived, and every memory was precious.**

Amy and Dan stiffened a little; they knew what she was feeling.

**She got on her bicycle and started off down the shore road. It would have been comical if the situation hadn't be so grave- pedaling off to war with a fortune balanced in the wire of your basket. She had an insane desire to ring the bell.**

"What?" Hamilton laughed.

**Their villa was not far from the airfield because nothing was far from anything else in a country that was smaller than a square mile. Monaco was a perfect jewel, with its cathedral and medieval palace perched on a rocky promontory on the coast. She had always considered it the loveliest place on earth. **

"Paris is the loveliest place," Natalie scoffed. Some nodded in agreement.

**Now it would always be the place where Mother died. Its beauty no longer existed for Grace. Its spectacular winding hills merely made cycling a chore.**

**She pedaled up to the airfield and left her bike leaning against a wall. The building was tiny, with a doctor's office-style waiting room and a single counter. "Excuse me, monsieur," she told the clerk, placing her open passport on the desk. "I wish to arrange transportation."**

**The man looked down his long nose at her. "Where is your father, mademoiselle?"**

"If me and Amy had a dollar for every time an adult asked us that; we'd be richer than the Kabras and Starlings together by now," Dan joked.

**Grace was not intimidated. "**_**I**_** am the one traveling, not my father. I need to get to Casablanca, in North Africa."**

**The man's shock turned to laughter. "Casablanca? Even as we speak, mademoiselle, Casablanca is under attack! It is no place for a little girl!"**

"**Luckily, I'm not a little girl," Grace said coldly.**

"**Even so! There are no flights to Casablanca! No one is flying there except for the purpose of dropping bombs!"**

"**I realize that," Grace conceded. "I'm here to charter a plane."**

"She has a lot of guts to be saying this at her age," Hamilton said.

"You're not that much older than her, you know." Nellie pointed out.

"**Presuming you are able to find a pilot reckless enough to go," the clerk blustered, "he would demand a king's ransom to risk his aircraft and his very life in this way,"**

**In answer, Grace set the briefcase on the desk and flipped it open.**

**The man's jaw dropped so low that she half expected him to knock his teeth loose against the counter. "I will consult with the pilots!" he exclaimed in a strangled voice, and disappeared through a swinging door into a back room.**

**Grace snapped the case shut, suddenly self-conscious. She might not be a "little girl," but she was a ripe target for robbery.**

"Especially if you go to a black market in Egypt," Amy murmured.

**The clerk returned after barely a minute. "It is as I told you, mademoiselle. No one is willing to take you to Casablanca."**

**Grace tapped the case. "There is gold in here as well."**

**He favored her with a full body shrug that was very French.**

"How can a shrug be 'very French'? A shrug is a shrug," Madison said.

"**A dead man would no opportunity to spend it. I am sorry, but this disappointment is probably prolonging your life."**

**She withdrew, feet dragging, the bag heavier than ever. Briefly, she considered using the money to buy a plane and trying to fly herself, but quickly abandoned the idea.**

"This isn't Grace," Dan suddenly said. Everyone looked at him weirdly before he continued. "She'd never give up!"

"Well that is true," Alistair whispered.

**She did not yet heave her pilot's license, and her navigation skills were as likely to take her to Sweden as North Africa.**

**A feeling of helplessness took hold in her gut. If no pilot would fly her, what could she do? She couldn't pogo-stick across the Mediterranean!**

The Starlings' eyes lit up for a moment.

**She was climbing back on her bike when a low heavily accented voice startled her.**

"**Why do you want to go there?"**

"Lunch is here," Alistair said looking at the skylight opening.

"Yeah!" the Holts and Dan cheered. Madison and Hamilton ran over to open the crates. Dan followed close by and dived into the crate.

"Neanderthals," Natalie said under her breath.

Amy rolled her eyes at her brother.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Quote: "All of this for a loaf of bread?"- Aladdin, Aladdin  
><strong>

**Now that I've posted the 25th chapter, I gotta get back to review my Mandarin for school. I don't really remember very much ****pinyin****, but I remember some characters. **我的家有两个人**. That's one of the few sentences I remember...  
><strong>

**-Catfriend3000  
><strong>


	26. Chapter 26: Reading Grace Cahill part 4

**A/N: Surprised to see that I'm updating now? I'm still not in school until tomorrow(kinda). It's a half day on tomorrow, and then a full day Wednesday. Then we're off to the fall out trip! It was sooo fun last year! Well, minus climbing a 55 foot tree, in a hardness of course... I'm terrified of heights, it was still kinda fun.**

**Tomorrow The Medusa Plot comes out! Finally. After waiting like for a full summer for me. Longer or shorter for some other people.  
><strong>

**Pages: 135-143**

**P.S: I don't own anything, but one can dream.  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Chapter 26:<p>

Dan just finished stuffing the last part of his lunch into his mouth, when Ned started to talk. "Anyone want to read now?"

"I will," Ian said wiping his mouth with a napkin.

**The dark, unshaven man who stood before Grace was built like a stone toad- short, with no neck and a torso so hulking it didn't seem likely that he'd fit in a cockpit. **

Natalie looked a little disgusted.

**Part of the problem might have been his voluminous ratty fur coat that looked like it had come from a woolly mammoth.**

Now she looked absolutely revolted at the description.

"**Are you a pilot?" she asked.**

"**Is war in Casablanca," he persisted. "Why you want to go?"**

"**That's my business," she told him sharply.**

"**My business is staying alive," **

"So is everyone else's," Dan mumbled.

**he told her evenly. "If I have brains, I don't go there. If I have money I don't go there."**

"**And do you have those things?" Grace asked, trying to hide her eagerness.**

"**It will cost much," he warned.**

"I don't think money is a major problem in this situation," Reagan said.

"If there's as much as she said there is, most definitely not," Ian said.

"**I'll pay you ten thousand American dollars."**

**The man's bushy eyebrows jumped, but his voice remained impassive. "Twenty- in advance."**

"**All right. Twenty- when we get there."**

"**How I know you have this money?" he demanded.**

**Grace shrugged. "How did I know you have a plane?"**

**He grunted. "Come back- midnight. Wear black. You bring money. I bring plane. If anybody asks, you never spoke to Drago."**

"He sounds like a crook," Nellie laughed.

**Grace had the audacity to fly into a war zone in search of an invading general, but she lacked the courage to return to the villa. Once reunited with baby Fiske- and even disagreeable Beatrice- she was afraid she might never leave again.**

**At a store by the palace, she bought black slacks, a black blouse, black boots, and a black leather coat. **

"At least she has a little fashion sense," Natalie said.

**The clothing was expensive, designed for hobnobbing with high society, not for a desperate night flight. Still, money was the one thing she had plenty of- as opposed to wisdom, or experience, or even a clear plan of what she was going to do once she got to Casablanca. If this was her first test as a Cahill, she was pretty sure she was failing miserably.**

_Exactly how we felt at the beginning_, Dan and Amy looked at each other.

**She toyed with the idea of renting a locker for her old clothes but ended up throwing them in the trash. This was no game. Operation Torch was an actual shooting battle. There was a very real chance that she might not survive this adventure.**

"My thoughts exactly about the clue hunt," Dan said relaxed.

**But even if she did somehow come through it all, she had a sense that she'd never be the same again. The Grace Cahill who wore frilly flower-print dresses and adored romantic novels and movies was gone forever.**

**As night fell, her thought returned to her family. Were they anxious about her back at the villa? Probably. She could only hope that Beatrice would hold off calling the police until Grace was airborne.**

"Beatrice might do worst," Fiske said.

**11:55. She pushed her bicycle into a drainage ditch, hefted the briefcase, and walked out onto the deserted airfield. All was dark except for a dim light coming from one low hanger. She made for it, heart pounding in her ears.**

**As she drew closer, the biplane came into focus- hulking, dilapidated, patched with tape and fabric. Crudely painted on the fuselage was a name: **_**OLGA**_**.**

"What kind of name is that for a plane?" Ian stopped reading

**A gasp of dismay escaped Grace.**

**Drago loomed out of shadows. "You were expecting brand-new B-29?"**

"**No- it's just- can this thing make it to Casablanca?"**

"**No," Drago replied.**

"Why would you tell a person, that's paying you to fly, that?" Ted asked.

"_**No?**_**"**

"**The fuel will take us as far as airstrip I know near Valencia, Spain. From there **_**Olga**_** can reach Casablanca."**

**Grace regarded the aircraft. "It doesn't look like **_**Olga**_** can get off the ground."**

**Drago was insulted. "My **_**Olga**_** won the first Zurich-Mombasa air race. She dropped supplies to partisans in Seville. She landed in cyclone in Istanbul when it was still called Constantinople."**

**She sighed. "I guess we'd better get going, then." She reached into the briefcase and pulled out a fat bundle of bills. "Ten thousands. And another ten thousand when we get there."**

"She knows how to do business," Jonah said.

**He snatched up the money and stuffed it into the depths of his voluminous coat. "I am not greedy. Ten thousand is plenty if it means I don't have to Casablanca and get killed. Farewell, foolish girl."**

**Grace was outraged. "We had a deal!"**

"**Here is advice to pass to your grandchildren someday: Trust no one."**

"So is that where she got it?" Amy asked.

"Most likely," Fiske nodded.

"Funny how this man taught her one of the most valuable thing for the clue hunt," Dan said.

**In a rage, Grace brought the heel of one of her new boots down on his soft shoe. **

Everyone tried to hide their laughs.

**He howled in pain and reached for her, but she was already vaulting into the cockpit of his plane, pulling down the canopy as she dropped to the seat. In a flash, she had the engine running and was beginning to taxi out of the hangar.**

"She really is determine, isn't she," Hamilton said.

"I doubt anything is going to stop Grace, even at age 13," Alistair said.

**He tried to block her way until the whirling propeller drove him back. He watched in astonishment as his beloved **_**Olga**_** rolled out onto the tarmac and headed for the runway. In a horrified instant, he realized that the plane was not stopping.**

"Cahills are really stubborn," Sinead laughed.

**Drago sprinted headlong across the airfield and hurled himself onto the lower wing of the biplane. Undeterred, Grace began to taxi in a serpentine motion in an effort to shake him off. Hanging on for dear life, he crawled between the struts to the fuselage, reached up, and managed to flip open the canopy. "**_**Stop!**_**"**

**In answer, Grace opened the throttle, sped down the runway, and pulled back on the yoke. With a mighty roar, the biplane left the ground.**

"So it can fly," Madison said amazingly.

**Watching the airfield fall away from him lent strength to Drago's panic. He hoisted himself up and over, and tumbled into the passage seat. "All right," he wheezed. "I will take you to Casablanca."**

"**Why should I believe you?" she shouted over the roar of the engine.**

**He was wide-eyed. "Because you have proven yourself worthy of my fear!"**

**When the aircraft crossed the border into occupied France, Drago was at the controls and Grace was in the passage seat, hugging the briefcase to her chest.**

**Her journey to Casablanca had begun.**

"Page break," Ian announced.

**Their flight path followed the coastline, not that Grace could tell. Occupied France was under strict blackout orders, so there were no lights **

"Eerie." Amy mumbled.

**beyond the occasional wisp of illumination sneaking out from behind dark curtains.**

**Drago navigated by starlight and the dim glow cast by a crescent moon. Occasionally, he consulted a torn and ratty map that lay open on his lap.**

"This is why we have GSP's," Ted smiled.

**Grace squinted out the window into the gloom. "How do you see where you're going? I can't even make out where the water meets the land."**

"**Don't have to see," the pilot grunted. "**_**Olga**_** knows the way."**

"**Funny name for an aircraft," Grace commented. "Is it after your wife?"**

"**My gun."**

"Olga is a horrible name for a gun and a plane," Natalie said.

"I sort of like the name," Nellie said. Natalie looked at her weirdly.**(I don't know if Nellie would say this, but I think she would given her style(which I love))  
><strong>

"Do you plan to name your kids that?" she raised an eyebrow.

"Well, no. I just think it's a cool name." She retorted.

**Grace stared at him. "You named your plane after a **_**gun**_**?"**

"**It was very good gun."**

**She scanned his shaggy, inscrutable features, trying to determine if he was serious. One thing was certain: He could not be trusted. He had already tried to double-cross her once and wouldn't hesitate to do it again.**

**For the present, though, the pilot seemed content to be piloting, and the biplane jounced above the coastline, plodding southwest. Grace did not remember sleeping, but she awoke with a start, instantly aware that something was different. There was no longer unbroken darkness below them. Lights shone from farmhouses and the occasional village.**

"**We're off course!" she cried. "You're taking me to the wrong place!"**

"Never put too much trust onto a person," Ian stopped reading again.

**He shook his head. "We have crossed over Spanish border. No war here."**

"**Sorry." She was chastened but relieved. Fascist Spain sympathized with Germany but was technically neutral. Where there was not fear of bombing, there were no blackout restrictions.**

"**You have father?" Drago asked her suddenly.**

"**Why should you need to know?" Grace demanded.**

**He shrugged. "I am father. My daughter, I hope, will never go on purpose to place of battle."**

"It won't be necessary, if she's not a Cahill," Ned slurred.

"**Well, my father is out of the picture," Grace said bitterly, "so I can't know his opinion on this or anything else."**

"**He is dead?"**

**Grace shook her head. "Just- gone. He left us." As much as she resented James Cahill for that, she would have given anything to see his face right then. Mother, too- her fair features, pale skin, and auburn hair. The gentle way she spoke your name, even when she was angry. The kindness that radiated from her...**

_She kind of like mom,_ Amy thought**(I forget what Hope was like, so sorry if this is wrong)**.

_**No, don't think about that! Father might come back, but Mother never will...**_

"**I, too, did this thing. Left my family." Drago gravelly voice betrayed no emotion. "I hope one day my daughter will understand."**

"**What's to understand about your own father deserting you?"**

"**Some things you must do," he informed her. "To make money. To survive. If this was not true, I would not be taking you to Casablanca."**

**In the reflected light of the instrument panel, Grace peered at her pilot. Every wrinkle and pockmark, **

_What bothersome wrinkles are_, Natalie thought.

**she imagined, had probably been etched by some cruel happenstance or experience.**

_**Life is hard for everybody, not just Cahills...**_

**Drago's voice interrupted her reverie. "In one hour we stop to refuel. If there is fuel."**

"He knows the worst possible things to tell her," Ted gave a small laugh.

"_**If?**_**" she echoed in alarm. "You mean there might not be?"**

"**Wartime," he said grimly. "Even neutral countries have rationing."**

"**But what if we can't take off again?"**

**He shrugged. "General Franco's men are not known for their trust. I will be arrested as spy. Your youth might save you. Maybe."**

**Valencia appeared in the distance, **

"Isn't that in Spain?" Nellie asked.

"I believe so," Alistair confirmed.

**glittering against the dark coastline. There was an otherworldly quality to being suspended in midair, in the cold and gloom of **_**Olga's**_** cabin, passing over Europe's storied cities. Despite the tension of the moment, Grace felt strangely free. It was almost as if the crippling fact of her mother's death, her father's disappearance, even the responsibility of caring for Fiske couldn't find her up here.**

"I know the feeling," Amy murmured, happily**(I think it was in book 8? I want to say, but I have no idea. I haven't read the series in a while)**.

Dan knew what she was talking about, and nodded.

**Drago veered inland, skirting the city to avoid attracting unwanted attention. Half an hour later, a double row of lights appeared amid the inky fields.**

"**Is that it?" Grace asked anxiously. For the past ten minutes, she had been watching the dropping fuel gauge. Pretty soon they were going to land, whether it was the right place or not.**

**Drago nodded. "I told you. **_**Olga**_** knows the way."**

"I doubt that plane knows," Sinead said.

**Whether credit was due to **_**Olga's**_** knowledge or Drago's skill, they were soon down on a concrete runway, taxiing toward a stack of fuel drums.**

**Drago pulled the biplane to a halt and killed the motor. When the propeller sputtered to a stop, Grace realized how much **_**Olga**_**'s vibration had become a part of her. **

"Dreadful," Natalie complained.

**It had been four hours since they'd left Monaco. Her guts were shaken; her lungs were full of gas fumes. And here they were- nowhere.**

**Drago popped the canopy and heaved his bulk out of the cockpit. "I will refuel." He pointed to a small shack. "In there you will find toilet."**

**Grace glared at him. 'If you think I'm going to give you the chance to fly away and strand my, you're crazy."**

"She learns fast," Nellie said.

**He shrugged. "It is long way to Casablanca."**

"**I'm fine, thank you very much."**

"**As you wish." He jumped to the tarmac.**

**A few minutes later, she heard the clanging of the metal drums and the gurgling of liquid filling the biplane's tank.**

**She tried to stretch out her stiff legs, but in the cramped cockpit, there simply wasn't room. She forced herself to ignore the discomfort. This was, after all, the easy part. They were about to fly into a war in search of an invading general. She should appreciate this calm while it lasted.**

**And then something cold and hard prodded her arm. She looked down at the barrel of a machine gun.**

Saladin, just then, jumped up to the table, which caused Natalie to jump out of her chair.

"Get that thing away from me!" Natalie shirked.

Dan picked up Saladin, and started to pet him. "He has a name; it's Saladin."

"Whatever. Just keep him away from me," Natalie said walking away from the table.

"What's with Nat?" Jonah asked.

"She allergic to cats," Ian explained.

"You didn't need to tell him that," Natalie snapped.

"I am family, cuz'," Jonah smirked.

"Natalie can you sit down so we can start reading again?" Amy asked politely.

"Only if you keep your feline away from the table," Natalie pointed to Saladin, who was in Dan's arms purring from his petting.

"Fine, fine, fine. I'll put him on my bed. But no promises that he'll stay there," Dan said reluctantly.

"If you leave some red snapper on the bed, he'll probably stay," Nellie suggested.

Dan walked over to the crates to see if there was any red snapper in there. Surprisingly there was a lot. He put some of the red snapper on his bed and picked up Saladin again. Saladin immediately started to eat, and mrrp-ed a happy mrrp. Dan walked back to the table and sat down next to his sister.

"I'll read," Sinead announced.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Once school starts and homework come, I might be able to update like once a week(Sorry, that's really bad for me). 7th grade(now you know what grade I'm in) is supposed to be the hardest grade in my middle school(i.e: 4 home projects, a report, test and quizzes, plus daily homework, all due the/on same day...Oy). 8th grade is A LOT easier, but that's 180 school days and a full summer away...  
><strong>

**Quote:"You'd think they'd never seen a girl and a cat on a broom before."- Jiji, Kiki's Deliery Service**

**-Catfriend3000  
><strong>


	27. Chapter 27: Reading Grace Cahill part 5

**A/N: No promises that this is going to be any good. I just walked my cousin's dog(who like dragged me for 5 blocks(a thirteen year old girl being dragged by a 40 pound dog- not really how one wants to walk a dog)) and I'm still recovering from my fall out trip. We hike for like 5 hours on Friday and more on Thursday. So I'm tired, but I'm still posting this.**

**Pages:143-150  
><strong>

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><p>Chapter 27:<p>

**A black-clad Spanish officer stood on the bottom rung of the boarding ladder. "Your papers, **_**señorita**_**!"**

"Not good," Hamilton whispered.

**Frightened, Grace fumbled in her coat pocket and came up with her passport.**

**The Spaniard's eyebrows rose. "American. You will come with me."**

"**Why?" she demanded in outrage, summoning an imperious dignity she did not feel. "You have no right to arrest me. I've done nothing wrong."**

"**Your country is at war, and therefore so are you. You are to be detained for questioning by the government of Generalissimo Francisco Franco. You will step out of the aircraft."**

"Do they actually think that she a spy?" Jonah said confused.

"Times were different during war," Ted said.

"**I- can't." How could she ever explain it to a man with a machine gun- that if she left the plane, Drago might fly off and abandon her?**

**Speaking of Drago, where was he? The refueling sound had ceased. Was the tank full and the pilot in hiding, waiting for the officer to drag her away? **

"Possible," Ian nodded his head.

**The gun nudged her again. "Out of the plane, **_**señorita. Ahora!"**_

**Grabbing the briefcase, she climbed down and submitted to being marched across the tarmac toward a small hut marked **_**POLICÍA**_**.**

**Grace's mind was awhirl. Could she bribe the man?**

"Bribery is always a possibility," Natalie smirked.

**What if he thought she was kind of spy? If she got sent to a prison camp, no one would ever find out what became of her! Even if they interrogated her and let her go, she'd be marooned in the middle of Spain.**

**Either way, she would never make it to Casablanca.**

**There was a loud thud, followed by the clatter of the machine gun falling to the tarmac. A split second later, the Spanish officer hit the ground beside his weapon.**

**Grace wheeled. There stood her pilot, brandishing a large wrench.**

"Impressive," Madison smiled.

**He took her hand and began to rush her back to the plane. "Hurry! He may be light sleeper!"**

**Weak with relief, Grace allowed herself to be stuffed back into the cockpit. Minutes later, they were in the air once again, crossing the Spanish mainland.**

**Grace gaped at her strange, shaggy pilot. "You could have left me! You could have flown away!"**

**Drago indicated the briefcase, which was once again her lap. "Where my money goes, I follow."**

"**You already have ten thousand dollars," Grace reminded him. "In Monaco you said that you weren't greedy."**

**He refused to look at her. "Do I resemble smart man to you?"**

"Is he insulting himself?" Ned raised his eyebrow.

"**You resemble a **_**wonderful**_** man!" she breathed.**

"**Bah!" he scoffed. "Where we journey is no place for sentiment."**

"**I'll pay you more money," she promised.**

**He nodded. "I deserve it."**

"Isn't he modest," Dan said.

"Page break," Sinead announced.

**An hour later, they were out over the Atlantic Ocean, giving Gibraltar a wide berth to avoid alerting the British Royal Air Force installation there.**

**They had left Europe behind. Next stop: Africa.**

"About time," Eisenhower grunted.

**Operation Torch came into view before Casablanca did. The first rays of dawn revealed a towering plume of smoke obscuring the African coastline.**

"**Look-"Drago pointed. "There is your war."**

**Grace gulped. "I was hoping it was just- bad weather."**

"That's being optimist," Ian mumbled.

**But now she could see hundreds of ships of all sizes- a mammoth naval battle. From this distance, they looked like Dinky Toys. **

"What are Dinky toys?" Natalie questioned.

"Is the great Natalie Kabra admitting she doesn't know something?" Dan pretended to be shocked.

"I doubt even you know, Daniel," she snapped back.

"They're toy vehicles cars made somewhere in England in the early 1990's" Ted explained.

**Grace had to remind herself that every faint flash of orange represented an explosion of enormous destructive power. American fighter planes strafed and dive-bombed the defenders, unchallenged by any Vichy French air force. In the sea she could make out the vector-straight track of a submarine-launched torpedo. Amphibious landing craft spilled their invaders onto the beach. Thousands of troops, tiny as ants, swarmed over the sand, exchanging lethal fire with the French soldiers dug in there. The scene was all the more bizarre because Grace couldn't hear anything over the noise of **_**Olga'**_**s engine. **

**That left a ghastly pantomime of mechanical monsters and soundless death.**

"**How are we going to get past all that?" Grace shrilled.**

"She just now asking that?" Dan asked with disbelief of his grandmother.

"**You ask me this **_**now**_**?" he demanded bitterly.**

"**I thought..." Her voice trailed off. The truth was she **_**hadn't**_** thought. She had brought them to this carnival of destruction with no clear plan.**

"There' nothing worse than that," Ian said.

"I can think of like 100 things worse than that," Dan said. "And they all happened during the clue hunt. Well, minus the time Beatrice threatened took take my baseball cards away."

Natalie, Ian, Amy and Nellie all rolled their eyes.

**Drago had an idea. "We go around it, of course. We do not want to tangle with one of your American- how you say- hotshot pilots." He veered back out to sea, flying parallel to the coast, avoiding the thick of the battle. The strategy was to come ashore well south of the city. They would approach Casablanca's airfield from the east, away from the fighting.**

**They were close enough that Grace could make out the minarets of Casablanca trough the smoke. She wondered which was of the American fleet was the heavy cruiser USS **_**Augusta**_**, Patton's ship.**

"**There is problem," Drago said suddenly.**

"Of course there is," Ted laughed.

**It all seemed like a problem to Grace- bombs dropping, cannons firing bullets flying, shells bursting. Even from afar, it was the utmost in chaos and insanity.**

"**What's wrong?"**

"**Our fuel is low," Drago replied.**

"Didn't they _just_ refuel?" Hamilton pointed out.

"Well, that was over an hour ago, and fuel can go fast sometimes," Nellie said.

"**How low?"**

**His expression was grim. "We must land now."**

"**What- in the middle of all that?"**

"_**Now!**_**"**

**He turned **_**Olga**_** toward the city and began to descend, veering closer to the teeth of the clash. "Airfield is just beyond town. I can make it!"**

"**But you're heading straight into the war!" she cried. "It's not safe!"**

"**Safer than crashing into the ocean!"**

"Personally, I would choose the option not crash at all," Dan said.

"I think anyone with a brain would," Ian muttered.

**Her eyes were riveted to the canopy, watching as they edged nearer to the smoke of the battle. Fifty yards...twenty...ten...**

_**Stay out of it**_**...she prayed, twisting her shoulders as if her body language could alter the plane's inevitable course.**

**And then the conflict surrounded them like a fatal fog. The aircraft began to vibrate as Drago cut speed.**

**Grace could feel the concussion of exploding artillery shells. The fighting was no longer silent. Bursts of flak bloomed all around them.**

**With a sharp crack, a stray fragment of antiaircraft fire tore through the fuselage.**

**Drago turned to Grace. "Now you will land **_**Olga**_** yourself."**

"What?" everyone cried out.

"**Me? Why?"**

"**Because I will very shortly be dead."**

**And then she saw the blood pooling on the motheaten fur of his coat where the shrapnel had pierced his chest.**

"Page break," said Sinead.

**Horror surged through her. "You're hit!"**

"**We must change seats"- his voice was strained- "while I can still move."**

"**We have to get you to a doctor!" she shrilled.**

"**Do it! There is very little time!" He leaned forward, literally stuffing her into the seat behind him. At last, he collapsed into the passenger chair.**

**Grace took hold of the yoke and throttle, fighting to steady her trembling hands. "You have to tell me what to do!"**

**The sight of him terrified her. The whole front of his coat was now saturated with blood. His face was chalk-white, his lips blue.**

"**You will do it," he promised in a thread voice.**

"_**How can you know that?**_**"**

**He stared at her as if memorizing her face. "I lied about Olga. She not my gun. She my daughter."**

"Is it really time for confessions?" Natalie grumbled.

**Grace struggled to control the shuddering craft.**

"**I have not seen her since she was small child," Drago whispered hoarsely. "But it is my hope"- he coughed- "that she is growing up to be like you."**

"I thought he said that he hoped that she _didn't_ grow up to be like her," Madison said.

"He said, and I quote: 'I hope, will never go on purpose to place of battle.'" Ted said.

**Grace tore her eyes from the horizon for just a second. It was long enough for her to realize that the pilot was gone from her. Drago was dead.**

_Another innocent person died, because of the Cahills,_ Amy and Dan said silently.

Everyone, even if they weren't sentimental, felt a little sad at the last paragraph.

**Not even at her mother's funeral had Grace wept with such intensity. She had dragged him here on her mad mission, and it had cost him his life. It was her fault as surely as if she had shot him herself.**

**But there was no time for regret. Below her was the beach- American troops shooting up at defenders on higher ground. **_**Olga**_** was now low enough to be in the thick of the fight. Rifle fire whined all around her like deadly mosquitoes. A stray bullet tore through the fuselage inches from her elbow and exited through the canopy.**

_Scary_, Amy thought.

_**I will not die here!**_** Grace gritted her teeth, wrestling with the controls as the biplane crossed over the shore.**_**I will live on and have children and grandchildren who will never have to go through terrors like this just because they're Cahills!**_

Everyone, besides the Cahill siblings, looked at Amy and Dan.

**She eased up on the throttle, gentling **_**Olga**_** lower and lower until the highest building of the city were passing mere feet beneath the landing wheels.**

**Where was the airfield?**

**A sputter from the engine told her that she did not have the time to find it. Drago had been right. The fuel tank was running dry. She was soon going to be on the ground one way or another.**

"She should try to get higher in the sky than," Ned said.

**Beyond Casablanca, the vast desert loomed. All right- if she couldn't locate the airfield, she was going to have to set down on one of the roads that led out of the city. She could see ribbons of pavement crisscrossing the sand.**

**Her flight instructor had been James Cahill, which meant that she had not had a lesson in more than a year. It was a bad time to be rusty, but there was no point in lamenting that now.**

"Well it's better than us," Dan mumbled. "We don't know how to fly at all."

"Or drive a motorcycle, boat, car, and any others that you haven't told me about," Nellie listed off.

_**Speed equals altitude**_** had been Father's motto. Less throttle meant more descent. The biplane swooped low over the windswept dunes. The road was directly in front of **_**Olga**_**'s nose. Grace went for it, all focus.**

**With a cough, the engine burned its last drop of gasoline. The propeller stopped, and **_**Olga**_** was falling. The crash was jarring. One tire blew, and the struts on the other collapsed. **

Amy closed her eyes and reached for her, late, grandmother's jade necklace.

**Sparks flew as metal parts scraped against the pavement at high speed.**

**Grace's world turned upside down, and she reached out a hand to brace herself against the control panel.**

**Impact. Blinding pain.**

**Darkness.**

Everyone was a little stunned.

"We know that she doesn't die," Ian recovered the fastest.

"Well, duh. If she did, me and Amy wouldn't be here right here," Dan said sarcastically.

"Does anyone want to read now?" Sinead waved the book in her hand.

"I will," Alistair said.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Might be rushed at the end, but I'm tired and my brain is limited of what I can think of as of right now.**

**People(a lot of people) have asked for Ian/Amy moments, I do want to put some in, believe me, it's just that I suck at writing romance. So if you have an idea, please tell me. Cause if you don't I probably won't be able to(yea that's probably going to lose some readers right there).**

**Quote: "See children? Everything in this room is eatable. Even I'm eatable! But that, my dear children, is called cannibalism; and that is frowned upon in most societies." -Willy Wonka, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory  
><strong>

**-Catfriend3000**


	28. Chapter 28: Reading Grace Cahill part 6

**A/N: I can see why people at school say that 7th grade is the hardest grade of middle school at my school. I already have a ton of homework and it's like the second week of school and we have to run a mile every other week. Ah well... eighth grade is supposed to be easier- I hope. Well enough of my life, here's a new chapter of the story. I'm going to try to do at least one update a month- if I can.**

**Pages: 150-154  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Chapter 28:<p>

Alistair picked up the book.

**It began as a general ache all over her body. But as Grace awoke, it localized. Her arm was in agony. She struggled out of her coat and examined the damage. Swollen, misshapen, and black and blue to the elbow. **

"Most definitely broken," Ned stated.

"That's what my arm looked like when I broke it," Dan nodded in agreement.

**She must have broken her wrist in the crash. The pain was awful, but not nearly as awful as the sight of Drago's lifeless body tossed like a rag doll in the seat beside her.**

**She looked up and instantly regretted it. The sun was overpowering- and very high in the sky. She must have been unconscious for hours.**

**Using her good hand and her teeth, she ripped out the lining of her overpriced coat and fashioned a sling for her left arm, it still hurt like mad, but at least it was supported. She popped open the canopy, swung a leg over the side, and dropped to the ground.**

"Won't she be in the middle of the war?" Madison said.

"The war probably already passed. She was unconscious for a while," Sinead murmured.

**The plane was a total loss. The collision with the sand had torn one of the wings, and the tail was broken off. Smoke billowed from a spot behind the propeller.**

"**Drago-" she whimpered. How could she abandon him to the desert? Yet she could do nothing for her pilot now. A dead man had no use for company. To the money in the briefcase she gave not a single thought. Its sole purpose had been to buy her way to Casablanca. And here she was. In the general vicinity, anyway.**

"What does vicinity mean?" Dan asked.

"Neighborhood, area, district, surrounding area-" Sinead listed.

"I get it," Dan stopped her.

**In the process of landing she had overshot the city by several miles. It was going to be a long hike, and she had best get started.**

**She began to trudge along the road in the direction of the distant spires and minarets.**

**It grew hotter. She took back everything she'd ever said about Boston winters.**

"Are they that bad?" Ian raised his eyebrow towards the Cahill family(Dan, Amy, and Fiske) and Nellie.**(From what I remember hearing, is that London is like San Francisco: doesn't get any snow, but a lot of rain)**

"On a really ba-" Nellie started before anyone could ask a question.

"Achoo!" Amy interrupted. "Sorry," she mumbled.

"On a really bad winter day," Nellie tried again.

**A snowdrift would have been heavenly for both cooling and drinking purposes. Her thirst was beginning to occupy all her thoughts.**

**Time passed- at least a couple of hours. The sun was well past its zenith in the cloudless sky. **

"And she wearing black," Natalie shook her head.

**She could feel the skin on the back of her roasting. Dressing in black had been a good idea for sneaking through the night as the Monaco airfield. Yet here in the desert, it was practically suicide, absorbing the solar heat as it did.**

**Her broken wrist throbbed with the jolt of every step. Still she soldiered on, driven by a mixture of courage and stubbornness. **

"Cahills are naturally stubborn," Amy gave a little smile, but her voice sounded a little weird.

**Perhaps she had not fully understood what it meant to be a Cahill when she embarked on this adventure. But each sizzling foot of sizzling sand brought that truth home to her: There was no pain. There was no heat. There was no exhaustion. There was only the task at hand.**

**The sun pounded down on her unprotected head. All around her, the baking desert shimmered. She could barely make out Casablanca, although she had to be a lot closer to it now. And the smoke plume from the battle- it had **_**moved**_**! **

"Not the best sign," Ned said under his breath.

**It was off to her right. Low and trailing across the dunes like a long snake all the way to the horizon.**

**Oh, no! Was she starting to lose her mind? Everyone knew about desert mirages.**

"Even Daniel knows that," Natalie smirked at Dan. "Probably," she added under her breath.

**She heard the growl of an engine- **_**many**_** engines. An army jeep appeared in the midst of the dust cloud. And another, followed by a truck. An entire convoy of military vehicles veering toward her on an intersecting road.**

**This was no cloud! It was an army!**

**The Vichy French? How would Casablanca's defenders treat a US citizen- even a young girl- after the terrible bloodshed in the harbor and on the beach?**

"Probably not very gentle," Madison muttered.

**And then she spotted the star insignia on the side of a half-track.**

**Americans! The battle was over. There were the conquerors- Operation Torch's Western Task Force- rolling triumphantly into the city.**

**An instant before, Grace was convinced that she had not a single ounce of energy left. She was wrong. The sight of the military column lent wings to her feet. She sprinted right into the middle of all that roaring machinery, waved her good arm, and yelled "**_**Stop!"**_

"Achoo!" Amy interrupted.

**Out of the heat haze of dust and sane lumbered a Sherman tank, its gun turret pointed directly at her. The caterpillar treads clattered to a halt. The hatch opened, and a helmeted head emerged.**

"**Are you crazy? Get out of the way!"**

"**I'm an American!" Grace shouted through dry, cracked lips. "I have to see General Patton!"**

**The soldiers laughed harshly. "I'll check his calendar. **_**Get out of the way!**_**"**

**Grace drew herself up to her full height, which barely cleared the top of the tank tracks. "Tell the general that Grace Cahill has an urgent message for him!"**

"I don't think saying your name is going to change anything," Ian said.

"**Hold it!" came a shout.**

**A jeep swerved around the tank and pulled up beside Grace. A young captain jumped to the road. "Did you say you name is **_**Cahill**_**?"**

"I stand corrected," Ian mumbled.

"**Grace Cahill. I've come a long way to see the general."**

**The man looked her up and down. "I'll say."**

**He loaded her into the jeep, wheeled off the pavement, and began to plow through the sand, passing a procession of soldiers, tanks, and equipment that easily stretched back thirty miles. The BBC broadcast had estimated that the Western Task Force numbered 34,000 troops. Grace was not surprised. The jeep's spinning tires must have kicked dust and dirt over at least that many.**

**After what seemed like an endless ride, they pulled back onto the road, blocking the path of a very large staff car.**

"I can only picture that as scary," Dan whispered to Amy, who just coughed.

**The driver stuck his head out the open window. "What's the holdup?"**

**The captain snapped a rigid salute. "Grace Cahill to see the general!"**

"_**Cahill?"**_** echoed a gruff voice.**

**The door opened and two shiny boots hit the tarmac.**

**Grace stared dumbly. The officer who stood before her radiated confidence and command, from his ramrod-straight posture to his armor-piercing gaze. Although he had just finished masterminding and directing a three-day battle, his uniform looked clean and pressed. On his helmet gleamed two stars.**

**It was General George S. "Blood and Guts" Patton.**

"Are you okay Amy?" Nellie glanced at Amy. "You look a little flushed."

Everyone's heads turned towards Amy, who turned even redder than before.

Fiske reached his hand to Amy's forehead. "You feel a little warm."

"Does that mean Amy sick?" Reagan raised her eyebrow.

"It's seems like it," Fiske walked over to the bathroom to get a wet cloth.

"Should we take a break?" Ted suggested.

"Fine by me," Dan said.

"Amy should lie down for a while," Fiske said helping Amy up.

"Dan, you should can of soup for Amy," Sinead ordered.

"Why should I listen to you?" Dan said half sarcastically.

"You did lose the bet too. And you should do it for your sister," Ted added.

"Fine, but only because it's my sister," Dan grumbled.

Amy sauntered to her bed, and Dan came over to her bed with soup. Everyone else did they own thing for a while.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Okay, Amy getting sick is just something to keep my fanfic a little different from the others. Well at least I'm pretty sure that no one else has made a character sick or along the line.  
><strong>

**Despise what I said about the book, this is one of my favorite quote. "Hello. My name is Inigo Montoya. You killed my father. PREPARE TO DIE!"- Inigo Montoya, Princess Bride**

**No promises when I'll update again and I don't own a thing.**

**Bye bye for now. ^^  
><strong>

**-Catfriend3000**


	29. Chapter 29: Cahills and Dinner

**A/N: This isn't going to be a reading chapter, for a few reasons: a) I just feel like it b) **Theo Telshalla-Arieda Gardner** gave the idea of this chapter c) SlytherinGurrl, sadie h, The 39 CLues Lover, and a few more other people said that they wanted a break chapter and Ian/Amy moments.**

**So thanks to all ^-^**

**Pages... gah! force of habit. Sorry.  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Chapter 29:<p>

Everyone was taking turns in the bathrooms, getting the food off of them. Mary-Todd, Sinead, Natalie, Nellie, and Amy came out of the bathrooms. Reagan and Madison tried to eat the food on them off, but that failed early on, so they we're taking a shower next.

Amy was thinking how this dinner turned from the most relaxed to the loudest. Dan and the Holts have the most fun at this dinner compared to any other. Fiske sighed on how he predicted that something like this would happen. Nellie was beaming with joy. This was the most exciting, cool, and most Cahill-like dinner ever.

Jonah was tapping a beat while waiting for the girls to finish. He enjoyed the dinner, even if he didn't show it.

Natalie was mumbling on how everyone in the room ruined her outfit. Ian supposed that this dinner was a little fun, in some ways.

Alistair was thinking that this was the most interesting one. Ted and Ned were grinning, they had an excuse to act a little differently and not get questioned. Plus they got to do more than one prank on people besides their sister. Their own sister was thinking the exact opposite. She fuming with annoyance.

* * *

><p><em>Few hours earlier<em>

Amy did not have a very easy time getting some sleep. This was only naturally because there were 15 other Cahills in the room with her.

Ted had challenged Ian to a chess match. Chess is usually a quiet game, except with Dan cheering for Ted to beat Ian and Natalie yelling at Ian every time that Ted took one of his pieces and yelling at Dan. So far Ted was winning or at least what it sounded like from Natalie's shrieks.

The Holt twins were seeing who could lift the most and the heaviest dumbbell. The other Holts were cheering the two girls on. They were all probably louder than Dan and Natalie, but not by much.

Nellie and Jonah, again, were singing some song that no one else in the room knew. It started out as humming songs to practically a full concert.

The quieter Cahills, Fiske, Ned, Ted, and Alistair, were just chatting to one another. Well, they did have to shout their conversation because of all the noise.

After an hour of all the shouting, Amy was tossing and turning because of the noise. Finally she threw a pillow at Dan, who, _surprisingly_, was making the most noise at the moment. Nellie stopped singing and went to get Amy a new wet cloth.

"How you doing kiddo?" Nellie asked.

"A little better," Amy croaked. "My throat hurts a little though."

"Well if you need something, call me," Nellie said walking away to resume singing, but a little softer.

Ian paused the chess game, and started to prepare something for Amy's throat. Ian was walking towards Amy, but he had to walk pass Dan, Natalie, and Ted, who all gave him a weird look.

"What?" Ian questioned.

"Where are-" Ted tried to ask.

"Are you helping your beloved Amy?" Dan cooed mockingly.

Again out of the blue a pillow made its way to Dan's area, just missing Dan.

"No!" Ian said a little too defensive. "It's just that all the food is by my bed. Or have you forgotten that little fact?"

"Mmm," Dan rubbed his chin like some professors do in cartoons, "maybe it wasn't such a good idea to have you do."

Ian rolled his eyes and continued his way to Amy.

"Here you go, Amy," Ian handed her a cup of green tea**.(Dunno if you call this an Ian/Amy moment, but if you do: here you go)  
><strong>

Amy mumbled something that sounded like a thank you.

"Quit stalling Ian!" Natalie chided her brother.

"Coming!" Ian hollered back, but not loud enough to disturb Amy.

This hour Amy had a better time sleeping but, only by a little. Ian and Ted finished their game (it was a tie, much to Natalie and Ian dismay, but more of Natalie's. But not for Dan!), so that cut down the volume by a lot. But the noise started to rise again when Hamilton and Jonah started to boss Ian, Natalie, and Dan around doing random things. Natalie complained every time Jonah and Hamilton gave her a new task. Ian tried to retort everyone time, but Jonah and Hamilton won every time. Dan didn't like any more than the Kabras, but he didn't weren't originally going to make Dan serve them, but it was the only way to quiet Natalie down, and by only a little.

Madison and Reagan had a lot of fun watching the Kabras work. The Starlings had to admit that it was somewhat amusing to see the three kids running around the large room. Alistair just watched everyone in the room thinking no much about anything.

Nellie and Fiske took turns taking care of Amy and taking care of the noise level of the room. After the Janus boy and young Tomas fellow finished their torture of the Kabras, Natalie and Dan started to fight.

A half hour later, crates came. Earlier Fiske called Mr. McIntyre to tell him that Amy had a cold. So an extra crate came, full with medicine and other things that could help Amy.

"Do you know what cause Amy's sickness?" Dan mumbled to Fiske.

"I think she got it from worrying herself too much," Fiske answered back. **(It's has happened to me before. Long story, short: I was so worried about an English test, I made myself sick and I couldn't do it that day)**.

Dan nodded, that sounded like his sister. Amy ate dinner in her bed, with Saladin curled up against her- eating Red Snapper of course.

This dinner was probably the loudest. Dan was walking back to the table with a plate of lasagna, when he tripped over his own shoe laces, causing the whole plate flying to the table. Dan thought it landed on Natalie because of the shriek, but it landed on Sinead.

Sinead screamed as the plate landed on her head. Her brothers jumped away from the table and away from Sinead screams. Hamilton, Jonah, Reagan, Madison, Ian, and Natalie couldn't help but think that it was a little funny. Sinead took her Chicken Parmigiana* (**It's Italian night in the world of the Cahill! And I think that's how you spell it)**, and threw it at Dan's head. Dan didn't really have time to react so, the meal hit him in the face as Sinead wanted.

Madison wanted to join the 'fun' so she threw a piece of pizza at her brother, who was sitting across from her. Hamilton wanted to get back at his sister, so he threw his ravioli at his sister. But it hit the wrong one.

Amy heard Dan trip and fall and looked up from her meal. Within minutes, every Cahill in the room, including Amy a bit, were throwing food at one another. And laughing when someone got hit but, they stopped when they got hit by food too.

At the end of the food fight, everyone was covered with food. All the adults let kids go first to take a shower. Natalie said she just _had_ to go first or she would try to make this meeting as miserable as possible. Nellie let Amy go first since she didn't have to do much.

* * *

><p><em>Back to the original time.<em>

Amy sighed. Cahill life would always have some kind of fight, serious fight or not.

After another 15 minutes of arguing, everyone finally settled down. Kind of.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: Might be a little rushed at the end, but I started to run out of ideas. And sorry if anyone seems OOC.**

***Just in case I spelling the thing wrong, it's like a chicken breast and spaghetti together as a meal.  
><strong>

**Quote: "You are afraid of everything except what you should should fear." Irina Spasky, the 39 Clues  
>"Dragon, dragon! Not lizard, I don't do that tongue thing(flicks tongue)."- Mushu, Mulan<strong>

**Two quotes to apologize for the rushed ending and for possibly OCC-ness. Well, it's the only way I could think of it right now, minus making the next chapter longer.**

**-Catfriend3000  
><strong>


	30. Chapter 30: Reading Grace Cahill part 7

**A/N: I'M ALIVE! Shocked that I'm updating? Sorry for not doing it as much as I used to, school is a lot tougher than I thought(which is saying a lot really). But I'm keeping my promise on updating at least once a month by updating on Halloween of 2011!  
><strong>

**Pages: 155-166(Wow I'm like half way done-ish)**

**UPDATE-12/1/11: For some reason the rest of the chapter wouldn't upload and I didn't realize that until AFTER I click update. So I give you the REST of chapter 30 and part 7. And sorry for not updating in November- a lot of homework/ projects. Tomorrow(12/2/11) I have like no classes(I only have P.E) my grade has a film festival. All day we're just going to watch movies(YAY!). **

* * *

><p>Chapter 30:<p>

If another Cahill was looking into the room at this very moment, it wouldn't look right. All was quiet and clean. Last night while some were cleaning the food off of them, the others cleaned the room. Surprisingly the Kabras helped, without being scolded to. All that needed to be cleaned was the bed sheets. Fiske called Mr. McIntyre about the food fight.

The morning crate came with clean, fresh bed sheets for the ex-clue hunters. At first no one knew how they were going to choose which sheet they were going to get. But when Hamilton opened the crate, they saw four black sheets, two red ones, four yellow ones, one green, and five blue. Everyone imminently knew how to pick which ones they would get.

"Should we eat first or read a little?" Ian asked diplomatically.

"Read first, just to finish this book," Madison held up the book. "Anyone?"

"I haven't read in a while, so why not," Nellie shrugged.

**Bodies littered Casablanca's beachfront, and spilled fuel burned in the waters of the harbor.**

**The battle was over.**

"That's good," Reagan sighed.

**The Vichy French defenders had surrendered, so the city was peaceful. The tranquility belied the brutal reality of a bloody invasion that had cost nearly two thousand lives, more than a quarter of them American.**

**Grace rode into town in the staff car next to Patton himself. Although she was champing at the bit to tell him about the Morse code message, she kept quiet.**

_Smart choice,_ Ian mused to himself.

**The commander was surrounded by aides and bodyguards. There was no way to be sure who- if anyone- could be trusted to hear the top secret communication that had been meant for James Cahill. Her only option was to wait until she was alone with the general.**

"How do we know that the General can be trusted?" Dan joked, not realizing how right he is. "He could be a Vesper.

Amy and Nellie rolled their eyes.

**When they reached the building that had been selected for Patton's headquarters, Grace was attended to by his personal physician. Her broken wrist was set in a plaster cast, and she was given food, water, and a room to set in. She slept for the first time in more than thirty hours and awoke to find fresh new clothes ready for her. On the dresser sat her briefcase. A good sign- it meant the contents of the plane had been recovered, including the body of the pilot.**

"Achoo!" Amy sneezed.

"Gesundheit, sis," Dan said.

**She popped open the lid. There was the money, every dollar, franc, and mark. The soldiers of Operation Torch were man of honor. It brought her a measure of relief. She could trust the US Army to give Drago a proper burial.**

"Drago sounds like a good man," Amy smiled to herself.

"But his fashion is horrible," Natalie mumbled.

**The general came to see her at 1900.**'

"That's 7 o'clock, right?" Jonah asked.

"That would be correct," Alistair confirmed.

**Finally, Grace had what she was looking for- a private audience with General George S. Patton. She explained who her father was and told the general of the mysterious boat that had flashed its Morse code at the villa in Monte Carlo.**

**"GSP- that's you, right?" You're one of the Cahills, like Abraham Lincoln and Mozart. **_**White house**_** is Casablanca, and **_**torch**_** is the invasion."**

**He nodded, amazed. "And you tracked me down in the middle of my own war! You're just a kid!"**

"How many times do I have to heard that before I'm sick of that line," Dan complained to everyone.

Amy silently agreed.

**She bristled. "I'm thirteen."**

**"Well, the fact that you made it here is better identification than a passport and blood test," he said with a laugh. "You're a Cahill, all right."**

**"But what does the message mean?" she asked. "Who are the Vs?"**

**"There's a group called the Vespers," he explained. "They go back as far as the Cahills. We've been rivals for centuries."**

"He has to be a Madrigal," Ted stated

"Why's that?" Madison questioned.

"It's simple logic. The Madrigals at that point have been the only ones to know that the Vesper existed, so therefore he has to be a Madrigal." Ted explained.

"Or like Dan said- he is a Vesper himself," Reagan added half joking.

**Grace nodded thoughtfully. "They must be the people we have to protect the ring from. But what ring? And what's this bull's-eye the Vespers know about?"**  
><strong>The general held up his hand. "Grace, listen to me. I don't want you to worry about it anymore. You brought me the message. No one could ask you to do anything beyond that. What you've accomplished is a miracle. Leave the rest to me. I'm going to get you, your sister, and your baby brother home to Boston. And it may take some doing, but I'll find your dad as well. You've got George Patton's word on that."<strong>

"But how good is that word?" Dan wiggled his eyebrows.

**Never before had Grace met anyone so totally in control, so impressive. From the powerful set of his jaw to the forest of ribbons, medals, and decorations on his chest-**

"Achoo!" Amy sneezed again.

"That's only the second time you sneezed today, so you might only have a 24-hour flu," Fiske deducted.

**he was the ultimate American hero.**

**She didn't mean to cry, yet once the tears began, she couldn't hold them back- the sheer relief of having so much burden lifted from her shoulders. She wept for Drago, for her poor parents, for the very world itself suffering under this awful war. How strange that now- when she was finally safe- the emotions should pour out.**

Amy felt the same way, in some ways.

**The general's legendary efficiency was evident in his plan for her. Tomorrow morning, she would be on a six o'clock plane to Lisbon; from there, on to London, where she would be joined by her family. Beatrice was going to have a lot to say about her disappearing act.**

"Well she ca be a killjoy at times," Nellie stopped reading.

**But nothing could spoil the prospect of seeing Fiske again...**

Everyone, once again, glanced at Fiske for a second.

**Yet there was something vaguely **_**unsatisfying**_** about the whole business. She had made in improbable journey at an impossible time; a man was dead, his aircraft destroyed. And now she was expected to walk away and forget any of it had ever happened.**

"I feel the same way about the clue hunt," Dan mumbled.

"Would you rather be in the clutches of Isabel Kabra or be bored to death at school, dude?" Hamilton nudged his little buddy.

"Mmmm... that's a tough call," Dan thought for a second.

"You call that a tough call?" Jonah looked at him weirdly.

Dan just shrugged and Nellie continued to read.

_**That's good news!**_** She admonished herself. **_**You have your life; you're being reunited with your family; you've placed the message in the hands of the most competent, confidences-inspiring military man on the face of the earth. How could things possibly go any better?**_

"When she puts it that way, I can't really think of anything," Mary-Todd said.

**Well, for starters, she reflected, the general could have been more specific about his strategy.**

"I'll say," Natalie agreed.

**He'd promised to handle it; what he hadn't mentioned was how. Not that she didn't have faith in him. But Cahill business wasn't Patton's top priority in Casablanca. He was the commander of a conquered city. Hundreds, maybe even thousands, of urgent matters would require his attention. What if Grace's message just slipped his mind?**

"I doubt that could ever happen," Reagan said.

"Once a Cahill always a Cahill," Ian smirked**(I want to say that one Cahill is the series said that)**.

**Sure enough, the general was gone all evening, assessing casualties and equipment losses after the invasion. That left Grace to stew in her doubts, wandering around headquarters under the watchful eyes of officers and sentries.**

**The place was really a large mansion. Patton's aide had told her that a wealthy Casablanca family had graciously offered their home to the US Army.**

"Who would want to do that? General or no general," Dan huffed.

"They probably didn't do it voluntary," Alistair suggested.

**She couldn't help wondering how much choice the "gracious" owners had in the matter. Then again- she thought of Father's many residences around the globe- the rich usually had someplace else to go.**

"True for us," Natalie bragged. "Or at least it was."

"It hasn't been that bad," Ian said with a little tone of hope.

**So many had sacrificed during this terrible war. Her sympathies were probably wasted on a single displaced millionaire.**

**Besides the men in uniform, the only other sign that the mansion had become an army installation was the large city map spread out on a vast dining table. A number of locations were marked with colored tacks- headquarters itself, the officers' billets, and troop deployments. There were pins all over town, except for a central district not far from the beach, filled with very narrow, winding streets. It was surrounded by a solid line on which someone had scribbled the word **_**WALL**_**.**  
><strong>She squinted. The area had a name, printed on the paper in paler ink:<strong>

**ANCIENNE MEDINA**

"AM!" Madison, Dan, and Natalie yelped.

"Well obviously," Ned rolled her eyes.

"Oh like you knew it was, Ekat," Madison huffed.

"I had a feeling it was that when she found out that Casablanca was the place she needed to go to."

"Whatever," Natalie said.

**She recalled from Madame Fourchette's French lessons that this meant the old Arab quarter, old casbah.**

**Her heart began to pound. Ancienne Medina- AM!**

_**So it doesn't mean**_** morning. **_**When the message said**_** White House AM, **_**it was a reference to Casablanca's old casbah!**_

"Old what?" Dan asked.

"It's the older part of a city in Africa," Sinead quickly answered.

**She had to inform the general!**

**"I'm sorry, Miss Grace," said Patton's aide. "He's tied up with military matters. I don't know when he'll be available again."**

**She returned to her room, growing more restless by the second. The Morse code pointed to the Ancienne Medina, but Patton didn't know that. And by the time she had a chance to tell him, it might be too late. There could be a Vesper in town at this very moment. And the Vespers knew all about the bull's eye, which was a lot more than Grace could say for herself. How could she be certain of what **_**bull's-eye**_** might mean in the middle of a shooting war fought with weapon scopes, rifle sights, crosshairs, and targeting system?**

"It could also so mean literally the eye of a bull," Hamilton argued.

**She was positive that the answer lay somewhere in the casbah.**

**But the general had said her part was over...**

_**Well, that was then; this is now.**_

**She could not stand idly by, giving their rivals a chance to find the bull's-eye first while Patton was distracted by military matters. She had to help. She owed it to the general; she owed it to her family; and she especially owed it to Drago, who had lost his life getting her here. Somehow, she had to make that meaningful.**

_"Kind of like us, huh?"_ Dan silently said to Amy.

**She'd never be able to explain this to the sentries stationed about the mansion. Luckily, Grace was an expert at sneaking in and out of places- training from her role as the younger sister of tattletale Beatrice.**

"Being ordinary can be helpful," Dan smiled.

"And I know what the feeling is like," Madison looked at Hamilton.

**She opened the shutters and eased herself over the windowsill, contemplating the eight-foot drop. Hanging on with her good hand, she lowered herself as far as she could and then jumped the remaining distance to the ground. Keeping to the shrubby, she sneaked across the property and vaulted a low wall.**

"I don't think that I'd be even to do that with a broken arm," Reagan admitted.

"Achoo!" Amy sneezed again.

**For a place that had just been seized by foreign invaders, Casablanca seemed very much business-as-usual. The streets were bustling with veiled women, turbaned and white-robed men, and visitors of a wide variety of nationalities.**

"Doesn't even seem like there was a war," Ian said.

**With war raging on the continent of the north, this part of Africa had been the first stop for many civilians trying to escape the conflict. People went about their business, heads down, never making eye contact. It was perfect for Grace's purposes- nobody looked at her. But it contributed to an overall sense that something secret was going on.**

"Can't say the same about Paris," Amy muttered.

**She had memorized the route between headquarters and the Ancienne Medina, although she questioned her navigations skills more than once along the way. The roads did not appear to be laid out on any kind of grid. They twisted and turned, and the exotic arabesque architecture, with its elaborate designs, made it impossible to fix on any landmarks.**

**She was relieved when at last she arrived at the stone wall, weathered by centuries of sand and dust storms, surrounding the Ancienne Medina.**  
><strong>She had made it- but where to do from here?<strong>

**Inside the casbah's gates, the neighborhoods were older and more crowded. Some of the alleyways were so narrow that the upper floors of the Moorish building almost met above the road, creating a tunnel effect. There were no cars here, just swarms of pedestrians and a few bicycles and carts.**

"I am picturing this to be a little creepy," Jonah mused.

**Tiny stalls and shops sold everything from live chickens to expensive jewelry. Saloons, restaurants, and cafés lined both sides of the street as far as the eye could see.**

**1001 NIGHTS**** proclaimed a pink neon sign. Open shitters revealed tiny tables and dim flickering candles that made it nearly impossible to see the food. This, thought Grace with a shudder, might be a plus. Two men were playing darts in the back room, and money was changing hands.**

**Grace started. A dartboard.**

"Bull's eye," Ian smirked.

"Was that a pun?" Dan looked at the Kabra.

"I'm just simply saying what's on it."

_**Bull's-eye—the center circle of a dartboard!**_

**Flattening herself against the crumbling stucco, she waited until the two gamblers finished their match and stumbled off to the bar. Then she slipped into 1001 Nights and made her way to the dartboard in the rear.**

**She peered at the bull's-eye. There were just a few holes, some of which looked like they had been made by knives and not darts. She reached behind the board. Nothing but wall- rough plaster, no secret compartment.**

**Okay, wrong dartboard. But there had to be plenty of others in the Ancienne Medina. Too many. And the only way to find the right one was a door-to-door search.**

"That's going to take her forever!" Nellie shrieked.

"I honestly don't see how you could do it another way without knowing if you missed any," Fiske said.

**A voice too close to her ear said, "Would the young lady care to challenge an expert?"**

**Grace was back out on the street before she could formulate a refusal. She wasn't sure why she was so scared. **

"I would be scared," Sinead said.

**After all, hadn't she just crash-landed a plane in the desert? Yet it took all her resolve to get her into Scheherazade next door. Belly-dancer music spilled out from a broken window. Oh, joy.**

**The next three hours saw her in and out of some of the sleaziest nightspots in all of North Africa. **

"How does she get in there? Don't you have to be a certain age to enter places like those?" Hamilton questioned.

**She examined dartboards of various shapes, sizes, and degrees of disrepair, stained with food, grease, and even, she suspected, blood. **

Some of the girls mad a face.

**The bull's-eyes yielded nothing.**

**The search was making her nauseous. It was getting late. A thirteen-year-old American girl in some of these places attracted attention. It was only a matter of time before she became a curiosity or, worse, a target. Maybe General Patton was right. Her job was done. It was crazy for her to try to take this any further in such a strange and dangerous environment. Especially since she had no way of knowing which of Casablanca's hundreds of taverns she sought.**

**Her eyes fell on the very last neon sign on the winding street:**

Nellie showed the "Torch Singer Café" sign.

**Her mind raced back to the Morse code message: **_**Torch is more than it seems**_**.**

**She had always interpreted it as a reference to Operation Torch. But it could just as easily have meant: Torch is more than the name of the invasion; it marks the location of the bull's-eye.**

**The Torch Singer Café seemed busier than the others. That might have been because it was long and narrow, more like a hallway than a tavern. It had a tiny stage for a lone performer, and- she check very carefully- no dartboard.**

**Disappointment. She had been so sure.**

"That's what the feeling is for most of the clue hunt- you think you have a lead, but you really don't," Dan smiled.

**And then she noticed the back door, partially hidden behind a trolley piled high with dishes. A fly-specked window overlooked an isolated alley. The dark courtyard was dominated by a large bronze sculpture of some kind of animal.**

**She strained for night sight, taking in the stout, powerful body and curved horns.**

**A bull.**

_**Bull's-eyes**_**- not the kind of dartboard but the actual eye of a bull!**

"I told you people!" Hamilton jumped out of his chair.

**She pushed the trolley out of the way and heaved at the sticking door, which came open in a shower of ancient paint chips. Examining the statue up close, she spotted it instantly. One eye was a rounded piece of green glass. The other socket was empty.**

**"They beat us to it," said a deep voice from the shadows.**

"What is up with everyone doing that?" Reagan asked to no one particular."It's kind of creepy."

**Grace wheeled. She didn't recognize him at first in tan slacks and a pale blue shirt- civilian clothes. But there, out of uniform, stood George S. Patton.**

**"General- what are you doing here?"**

**Patton smiled grimly. "Same as you, my dear. You're a true Cahill, Grace, sneaking out under the noses of my entire staff. You'll be a great asset, even though you're not much for doing what you're told."**

"Since when does any Cahills follow the rules?" Nellie gave a small laugh.

"You say it as if it was a bad thing," Ted looked at the nose-ringed au pair.

**She could not be distracted. "What happened to the bull's eye? Who beat us to it?"**

**The general raised his eyebrows. "The Vesper, of course. They always seem to be a step ahead of us."**

**Grace was skeptical. "We Cahills are the most powerful family in human history."**

**"We are, we are," Patton said quickly. "But the Vespers have on advantage over us. They're **_**not**_** a family. They recruit only the best and the brightest- ruthless geniuses of diabolical brilliance. While we Cahills are held back by infighting among the family branches, the Vesper can be completely and perfectly united behind their goal:"- his steely eyes gleamed- "world domination. Yes, they're our rivals, but there is much more to admire about them."**

**"No," whispered Grace, devastated. She had come so far, risked so much- and at that, she was luckier than poor Drago. How could Patton just give up? Cahills didn't do that!**

**"But this Vesper agent"- she persisted- "he could still be in Casablanca. He might have only beaten us by five minutes! We have to find him! You've got a whole army at your command. We could catch him, and search him- it's a ring he took, right?"**

**"I admire you spirit, cousin," Patton told her. "Don't worry about a thing. When I leave Casablanca, I guarantee that I'll have the ring. Now, come along. My jeep is waiting."**

**As he turned to take her arm, Grace caught a glimpse of his breast pocket. It bulged, concealing something just about the size of the bull's empty eye socket. With a manufactured sigh, she slumped against him, making sure to brush the mystery object beneath the fabric of his shirt. Hard, probably metal, with a rounded band.**

**Holding in the shock and rage she felt, she followed him out of the alley and got into the back of his jeep. The general had no way of knowing that this slip of a girl had discovered his secret.**

**Yes, the Vesper had beaten the Cahills to the ring. And, yes, Patton would not leave Casablanca without it.**

**How was that possible?**

**The Vesper was Patton himself.**

"I knew it! That guy is a big fraud!" Dan also jumped out of his chair.

"A Holt and Cahill right in the same day. Not something you see very much," Natalie looked at Dan.

"Can we eat now?" Madison complained.

"I could use a break from the book too." Alistair said.

"We can get the food." Hamilton said, standing up with the rest of his family.

"How long have we been here by the way?" Amy asked suddenly.

"About 3 days. I wanna say." Ned thought.

"Breakfast is served," Madison grumbled.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: So when I originally post this chapter all I had was like one- pointless- sentence and the quote. By the way- I hope to update my other story on the 6(?) mainly what ever day the next 39 clue book comes outs.  
><strong>

**Quote:"Twins with too much time on their hands... are the devil."- Tamaki Suou, Ouran High School Host Club (if you don't know what a host club is- you can easily look it up)  
>Original Quote: "Love: A temporary insanity curable by marriage."- Ambrose Bierce<strong>

**Really excited for tomorrow! Hope I can update tomorrow too. Not probable but one can hope.  
><strong>

**-Catfriend3000  
><strong>


	31. Chapter 31: Reading Grace Cahill part 8

**A/N: Yea! Another update! I've been sick all day, so I had time to work on this. But it also might be that good because of my cold. I have had SO MANY headaches within the last two day IT"S INSANE!**

**Last part of Grace's story! Which means that I'm almost done with this fic(I think). And this is kind of a short chapter.  
><strong>

**Pages: 166-170(yea not that long)  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Chapter 31:<p>

"Okay so whose reading next?" Dan asked eagerly, which caused some people to stare at him. Nellie, Fiske, and Alistair gave a small smile to Dan.

"Did someone put anything in Daniel's food? This is too weird that Daniel wants to read," Ian somewhat sarcastically.

"It's DAN!"

"I must admit, Kabra does have a point. Why are you so interested in reading the book now? At the start you were loathing the idea." Ted asked.

"I just really want to see what Grace does to that fraud!" Dan huffed.

"At least he's motivated to read the book," Nellie shrugged.

"I'll read," Reagan picked up the book.

**Grace's first challenge: bury her anger. Nothing must be allowed to interfere with her thinking.**

**In the next suite of rooms, she knew, Patton was asleep for the night, enjoying the double triumph of a successful invasion and a Vesper victory. The importance of the ring had to be colossal. Operation Torch had three landing points. Patton must have persuaded the entire US Army to choose Casablanca as one of them just to get himself to the bull's eye. **

"That probably took some time," Fiske spoke up.

"Have you tried something like it?" Jonah looked at the man.

"Somethings are better unknown," Fiske replied. Which to the others, saying that was like admitting that he has tried something like that.

**Ruthless geniuses, he had called the Vespers. It was all too true. And Old Blood and Guts was the most ruthless of the lot.**

**But this wasn't over yet.**

**Once again, she left her room via the window, this time shuffling along the narrow ledge that circled the house. Moving her bare feet an inch at a time, she edged toward the balcony that was outside of the man bedchamber- the general's suite. It was a warm night and the French doors were open. She slipped inside walking lightly. To her right, she could hear Patton's deep breathing. To her left was the dressing room, with the general's uniform hanging in military precision.**

**She found the pale blue shirt he'd been wearing last night and reached eagerly for the pocket.**

**Empty.**

"Do you think he's wearing it?" Amy said in a little voice.

"He must be hiding in plain sight. Like Gideon did with Damien 500 years ago," Ned suggested.

_**Don't panic. It stands to reason he'd keep it close...**_

**She glided into the bedchamber, the rich rug absorbing any sound she might have made. She scrutinized the nightstand. There was a pitcher of water and a half-full glass. Holding her breath, she slid open the drawer. A gold watch, nothing more.**  
><strong>Leaning over the bed, she tried to see his hands. Oh, what would she do if her was wearing it? But his fingers were bare.<strong>

"One less thing to worry about," Natalie spoke.

**Her eyes fell on a wooden valet, which held his clothing for the morning- a dress uniform with a chest full of decorations. He certainly wanted everyone to see the evidence of his heroic career.**

"Egotist," Ian mumbled.

"Like you're one to talk," Dan smirked. Ian shot him a look that could kill but Dan just simply smiled. Natalie just rolled they eyes and Amy sighed.

**Those medals were more important to him than anything- except maybe the ring.**  
><strong>Grace's eyes narrowed, and she moved in for a closer look. What better place to hide a piece of jewelry than amid all that brass and gold?<strong>  
><strong>She stared. There it was, between a French Croix de Guerre and his Purple Heart. <strong>

"What's a 'French Croix de Guerre'" Reagan read again.

"It's mostly a medal for military commanders who performed heroic deeds in combat." Alistair explained.

**It was fastened to a red-white-and-blue ribbon and pinned to the jacket- just one award among dozens.**

**The ring.**

**She removed it, taking another medal from the end and filling in the empty space. Pocketing her prize, she quickly and silently flitted back out the window and returned to her room via ledge. At last, she examined the focus of so much attention from both Cahills and Vespers.**

**It was about the size of a man's class ring, yellow gold. Around the band was peculiar design of embossed ridges and tiny slots. It wasn't much to look at, so it must have some had some hidden function or meaning.**

"Which is still a mystery," Amy looked down at her watch.

_**Never mind what it is. The important thing is you have it, and Patton doesn't...**_

**Now the trick would be to sneak it out of Casablanca before the general realized it was missing.**

**She stepped out into the hall, where she was immediately challenged by the sentry Patton's door.**

"**Sorry miss. I'm not supposed to let you leave."**

"**Oh, I'm not leaving," Grace replied airily. "I'm just going down to the dispensary for an aspirin." She hefted her cast. "My arm is very sore."**

"She a good liar," Madison said.

**The soldier nodded sympathetically and waved her on.**

**She breezed down the stairs and into the room where the doctor had set her arm. From an instrument tray, she found a scalped and began to dig a trench in the hard plaster on the underside of her cast. She worked furiously. If it took too long, the sentry would come looking for her. When the hole was big enough, she jammed the ring inside and wet a length of plaster bandage. She wrapped it over the ring, shaping and smoothing it so it would blend in with the rest of the cast. Tidying as best she could, she returned just as the sentry was beginning to descend the stairs in search of her.**

"No wonder she's one of the best. Even at 13 she's one of the best," Ian mused.

"**Find your aspirin, miss?"**

"**Yes, thanks. I had a hard time getting the cap off with just one hand."**

**The hall clock said 3:30. Two and a half hours to her flight.**

_**Sleep tight, General. Sweet dreams**_

"Page break," Reagan announced. "We only have a few more pages until the next part, I think."

**The first thing General Patton noticed the next morning was that his Bronze Star was in the wrong place.**

**Unacceptable. Even the lowliest buck private in the Western Task Force knew better than to mess with a commander's medals.**

**He bellowed for his aide, but before the first syllable had passed his lips, he knew.**

**The ring was gone.**

"That didn't take him long," Jonah said.

**It was the girl, of course. She was really something.**

**Still, she wasn't going to get away with it.**

**His aide burst into the room. "Yes, General!"**

"**Call the airfield! Grace Cahill's plane is not to take off from Casablanca!"**

**The man blanched. "It's already gone, sir. Miss Grace was anxious to get moving, so we took her to the airfield early. She was the only passenger and-"**

"**I want that plane turned around and the little witch brought to me in chains!" the general howled.**

"And I thought Isabel could be scary," Natalie flinched

"SHE IS!" half of the people in the room yelled.

**The aide winced. "She already landed in Lisbon- under Portuguese jurisdiction. I'm sorry, General. There's nothing we can do."**

"**Get out!" Patton rasped, and the officer ran for his life.**

**Beaten- and by a thirteen-year-old girl!**

"That how I bet a lot of other Cahills felt when me and Amy won the hunt," Dan looked proudly.

"Amy and I," Amy mumbled.

**Those Cahills! They had been a thorn in the sides of the Vesper organizations for more four centuries.**

**He was about to go up against the entire German army, but he feared it less than that cursed family!**

"If only he was alive today," Nellie smiled. "I'd love to see him go against Isabel."

**They had regained control of Gideon Cahill's ring. And now they had a new champion- a girl with the courage and guile to outflank George S. Patton.**

"Page break," Reagan said.

**At the airfield outside of London, Grace hugged baby Fiske and tried to smile at**

**Beatrice. Her sister wasn't buying any of it. "What do you have to say for yourself, Grace? Where have you been? What happened to your arm?"**

"She should be thankful that her sister is still alive," Reagan stopped reading.

**Grace gazed at the spot on her cast where the new plaster covered the precious ring.**

"**This? It hurt for a while, but now it feels fine."**

**Beatrice was beside herself. "That's not what I asked! How **_**dare**_** you run off on us in the middle of a war? Who do you think you are?"**

**Grace took a deep breath. The past two days had been the most difficult of her life, and she know that there were many others ahead. She felt the weight of her wonderful and terrible family settling on her slim shoulders, and the answer to her sister's angry question suddenly became obvious.**

"**I know exactly who I am. I'm Grace Cahill."**

"Go Grace!" Dan jumped up.

"What's the next part?" Ted ignored Dan at the moment.

"Uh, 'Amy and Dan Cahill- Present'," Reagan looked at the next paged.

"What! How could there be a book about what in Switzerland already!" Amy exclaimed.

"That just happened a few days ago!"

"Maybe it's not about Switzerland, it could be about anything else," Sinead said.

"But nothing else has happened recently. Right?" Nellie looked at where Fiske was sitting. But he wasn't in sight.

"Where did he go?" Natalie asked, shocked.

"I was sitting next to him the whole time," Amy was now confused.

"Did anyone see him leave?" Ian questioned everyone.

"Let's see, he was here when Dan was excited about reading the chapter- which was shocking by the way. And he was here when Jonah asked if he has tried relocating an army for other purposes." Ned looked back at the last few minutes.

"Do you think he'll mind if we go on?" Amy wondered.

"He probably has reason why he so suddenly," Nellie reasoned.

"Doesn't he always," Dan joked a little.

"Well then, who wants to read?" Reagan held up the book.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I've been slacking on typing the rest of the book as of late. So I'm only at 191. My goal was to finish typing the book by the end of summer, but that didn't quite work out now didn't it ^^  
><strong>

**Quote: This is kind of long- "What are you talking about? You are Elastigirl, my god, pull yourself together! What is this, some sort of question? He has reminded you he is Mr. Incredible, and you will remind him who are! So, you need to fight, then go, fight, win! And call me when you get back, darling, because I love frequent visits."-Edna Mode, the Incredible**

**Since Amy and Dan's part is coming soon, do you think I should have them tell the truth about Nellie with or without Fiske there? And don't worry about Fiske, I didn't kill him or anything like that.**

** I hope I can update soon!  
><strong>

**-Catfriend3000  
><strong>


	32. Chapter 32: Who Nellie Really Is

**A/N: Not a reading chapter! I decided to add Amy, Dan, Nellie, and Fiske to tell the truth about Nellie. It took me a while to find the 9th book in my bookshelf. My bookshelf is SO small and I have to many books to fit in the shelf so, I have to pill books on top of books to fit them. So most of this is written by memory.**

****Spoiler Alert if you haven't read "A King's Ransom" or if you watch "Once Upon a Time"- But I am mad that Mr. McIntyre and Sheriff Graham both died! Graham is one of my favorite character and Mr, McIntyre, I feel like, plays a big role within the Madrigals' part of the story. Hence me sulking for a few days.  
><strong>**

* * *

><p>Chapter 31:<p>

"I'll read," Dan smiled. He grabbed the book from Reagan and flipped to the page that started the next part.

"Before you do, I just got a call from Mr. McIntyre." Fiske said entering the room with his black cell phone in his right hand.

"What did he say?" Amy looked at her uncle.

"Mr. McIntyre called to see where we were at in the book. I told him that we were at the beginning of Amy and Dan's part," Fiske explained the first part.

"Surely he didn't call you for _just_ that," Ian stated.

"Well of course not. He's asked that Amy, Dan, Nellie, and I explain a few things that might be a little confusing if not explained."

"That whole last sentence was a confusing," Madison said, mumbling the sentence again.

"Wait, so what do we have to explain?" Dan spoke up.

"I think it's time they know the truth about Nellie," the moment that Fiske said Nellie's name, 12 pairs of eyes fell on the au pair.

"You mean there's more to Nellie than a poor excuse for a nanny," Natalie jabbed her thumb towards Nellie.

"I supposed we should get started, given that it could take away to explain this. Go get anything that you think you might need for the next hour or so," Fiske ordered.

Almost everyone brought a snack. Dan would've gotten a snack, but he was confuse, as were Amy and Nellie, about what Fiske had just said.

Once everyone was settled, all eyes were on the Madrigals in the room. Amy was fiddling with her fingers pretending that the eyes weren't looking at her.

"Where do we start?" Amy, shyly, asked the other Madrigals.

"Starting at the airport in Beijing," Dan started. "Me and Amy were auguring about where to go- Bahamas or Jamaica next."

"Dan wanted to go to the Bahamas because of Oceanus-" Amy said.

"What's Oceanus?" Natalie interrupted.

"WHAT'S OCEANUS!" Dan jumped up, which made some people jump as well. "It's the most awesomest place on earth! It's the biggest water park in the world, they got hundreds of watersides, and you can swim with animals! How do you not know what it is!"

"Whatever," Natalie rolled her eyes.

"Oh, I think I heard of it," Madison thinking about something. "It's the place where one of the sharks escaped from the tank, then later died because it fell into a chlorine pool."

"Exactly," Dan thanked Madison in a way.

"Back to the story you two," Ian said ignoring most of the last conversation.  
>"Anyways, Dan wanted to go to the Bahamas because of Oceanus and I wanted to go to Jamaica because that was the last place that was the last place anyone has ever heard of Anne Bonny. Anne Bonny was the person we were following at the time," Amy went on with the story until Dan jumped in.<br>"We ended up going to Bahamas first-" Dan only got to say about half a sentence before interrupted by Sinead.  
>"Wait, if Jamaica is where you wanted to go, why did you go to Bahamas?"<br>"Dan was saying how we always get to the 'right place' because we learn a lot of other things at the 'wrong place'. And if we never went to the wrong place first, then we would've never made it to the 'right place'."  
>"That's makes sense- sort of," Hamilton was repeating the sentence in his head.<br>"Back to the story, we ended up going to the Bahamas, and of course we told Nellie because she was our guardian at the time," Dan told everyone.  
>"So I bought the plane tickets and I was happy that we were going to the Bahamas," Nellie jumped in.<br>"But before that, she went to the bathroom," Amy said.  
>"Or so she said," Dan added on.<br>"What did she do then?" Jonah asked, confused.  
>"I was calling Mr. McIntyre..." Nellie mumbled.<br>"Why?" Ned questioned, eagerer to learn more about this.  
>"We'll get to that," Amy answered for now. "Right as Nellie was buying the tickets, Hamilton called-"<br>"Why would you call them?" Ian raised an eyebrow.  
>"Simple- we're buddies ever since Russia. Don't you remember Australia with the sharks?" Hamilton explained.<br>"Oh, so that why you saved her," Ian nodded, remembering that indecent. Amy paled a little at the memory.  
>"What happened there?" Alistair asked.<br>"Isabel had Ian call me to tell me that they wanted to meet me on their boat to form an alliance. So when she got me on the boat, that's when she asked me and when I said no, she dumped dead- bloody- fish into the ocean. Which attracts sharks. She threaten to push me into the water if I didn't tell all Dan and mine clues so far. That's when Hamilton came in to save me on a paraglider." Amy unfolded the story.  
>"Back to the airport, Hamilton called us to tell that his dad knew where we were going- which really confused us since only we knew where we were going in the last five minutes. And we- or I- thought that Hamilton said something about a calico cat, which later we found out to be Calico Jack, a famous priate ," Dan continued.<br>"So we started to think that something was off," Amy jumped in. "That's when we started to suspect Nellie was a spy to the other Cahills."  
>"Are you kidding me!" Natalie shrieked kind of loud. "Why would we hire her?"<br>"She's the closest to Amy and Dan, the people who had the lead at the time and won the Clue Hunt, perhaps," Ted reasoned.  
>"Well, I'm not a spy for you guys obviously. I was doing something different," Nellie huffed.<br>"Amy and I decided that we should question her on the plane because she couldn't escape there," Dan went on.

"We found out that Mr. McIntyre was paying her to look after us. Also was sending him update about what we were doing." Amy continued.

"If you all think that I was hired at random, think again," Nellie chided, in a way, everyone who said that she was just a clueless nanny. "Grace hired because she thought that the rest of the completion would have some unfair advantage over Amy and Dan-"

"So I'm guessing that she hired you because you're like the only person outside the family to be crazy enough to go on this hunt without question," Reagan interrupted.

"That about sums it up," Dan nodded in agreement.

"Anyways, she threaten Beatrice that if she fired me before she died, she wouldn't anything in her will," Nellie smiled at that.

"After reading about her when she was little, I don't blame Grace for saying that," Ian uttered.

"So we went the Bahamas, there we found a bear claw which represents the Tomas we went to Kingston, Jamaica we met a woman named Alice. She told us that Nellie's nose ring had something to do with the Clue Hunt," Dan recounted.

"We figured that Grace's jade necklace also was connected," Amy pointed at her necklace.

"Isabel had the last piece we needed so we set a trap for her and the other two cobras," Dan smiled at Ian and Natalie. "We knocked Isabel out and stole her wolf fang from her charm bracelet."

"Awesome!" Hamilton pumped up his fist.

"You manged to knock a cold blood murder?" Sinead pointed at the two Cahills.

"Back to the story, we found a box that has a space for all four items-" Amy got interrupted by Natalie.

"So the four items represented each branch?" Natalie clarified.

"The bear claw was for the Tomas; Grace's necklace was the Ekats; Nellie's snake nose ring was the Lucians; Isabel's charm represented the Janus," Nellie matched the items.

"A man named Lester helped us to get the box because he worked at the excavation the box was at. But..." Dan trailed of.

"What happened?" Alistair noticed his voice changing towards to end of the sentence.

"Isabel's thugs were chasing us because we stole her charm. But instead of us, her thugs killed Lester..." Amy didn't like thinking about Lester's death.

"So we wanted to go back to Beatrice because we didn't want to cause another death," Dan spoke in a low voice.

"The Madrigals needed Amy and Dan, so I took them to where the Man in Bla-er Grey at the time, wanted me to take them," Nellie kept going.

"The Madrigals set up a test for every agent rather than just granting people a Madrigal status. The test for Amy and Dan was to open the box- without breaking the box. They had one hour to solve the puzzle along with some help from Nellie," Fiske jumped in. " If they failed, then they wouldn't have become Madrigals."

"We passed the test and heard the whole story of the Madrigals," Amy proceed with the story.

"And most importantly, The Man in Black turned out to be Uncle Fiske," Dan pointed to Fiske.

"Along with granting Amy and Dan Madrigal status, Nellie became the first person ever to be a Madrigal outside of the family," Fiske finished the story.

"So Nellie is really a Cahill?" Madison asked.

"What do you think they have been talking about for the last hour?" Natalie snapped.

"It is amazing to hear who your nanny really is," Ian mused.

"AU PAIR!" Dan and Nellie both yelled at Ian, who rolled his eyes.

"So that's why you're here," Ned, who now understood, nodded.

"Are you saying you don't want me here?" Nellie said in a sharp tone.

"It's not that but I did think it was weird that you were everyone here is a Cahill," Ned defended himself.

A moment of silence came over the Cahills, which to Dan was a little creepy. "To lighten up the mood, Jonah can sing a song," Dan smiled at some the reaction of certain people.

Natalie, Reagan, and Madison all shot Dan a look that could kill. The Starlings and Amy just shook their heads. The rest of the Holts, Alistair, and Jonah looked at him weirdly. Nellie started to scroll down her playlist and Fiske rubbed the sides of his head with two fingers one each side.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: I seriously am going to have Jonah sing a song in the story, but I don't know which song and I don't know any good ones. So please review with a song title. No promises that I'll update soon but I'd like at least two reviews just cause I'll have 100 reviews then.  
><strong>

**Quote: "The more I see, the less I know for sure."- John Lennon**

**-Catfriend3000**

**P.S: HAPPY HOLIDAYS, PEOPLE!**

**P.P.S: I didn't really edit this because it's the holiday and my mom is nagging to get off the computer.  
><strong>


	33. Chapter 33: Reading Amy and Dan part 1

**A/N: HAPPY _late _NEW YEAR! And Happy Birthday to MLK!  
><strong>

**Sorry I haven't update in a long time. School is rough... But there is a lot of reading, I don't mind too much.**

**Things I Own: Amy's Dream(going to be the next chapter), bunch of shoes(surprisingly), and about $30.00**

**Things I DON'T Own: The 39 Clues Series( i.e: The bold part of the story), and the song/dance I mentioned.**

**Pages: I don't know where my book went so I don't know the page numbers... v.v  
><strong>

* * *

><p>Chapter 33:<p>

Laughter filled the small room.

Jonah had just finished dancing the Caramell dance.

~_30 minutes early~_

Most everyone was auguring about which song Jonah should sing. Dan and Hamilton agreed on "Barbie Girl" (which caused an even louder uproar of protest). Sinead, feeling a romantic mood, suggested "Let Me Be Your Wings" by Barry Manilow and Debra Byrd. Oddly enough everyone agreed on Ian's idea of the Caramell dance**(If you don't know how to do it, search it on youtube and imagine Jonah doing. To me- it was VERY amusing)**. Ian remembered someone in school talking about it. He had Nellie search it on a computer, which caused her to laugh her head in the first 30 seconds. The Holt sister soon agreed on it.

Jonah was mortified when he saw the video.

"WHY DO I HAVE TO DO THIS?" He yelled loud enough that someone on Jupiter could hear him.

"Well you are a Janus," Natalie said calmly with a smirk. "And Januses are masters at art," she coldly complemented.

Jonah turned to Amy, hoping that she could make up a reason for him _not_ to do this. But much to his dismay, she too was snickering. Even the adults looked amused!

Feeling corned, Jonah watched the video ONCE. Sighed a deep sighed. Nellie turned the speaker up loud(not normal people loud, but Nellie people loud) and Jonah started to dance.

~Present~

"I have to admit that this did help the mood a little," Ian was still laughing.

Jonah was tomato red by this time. "Shut up! Can we continue reading now!"

"I do believe that was enough of a tangent for now," Alistair coughed in his hand, hiding his laughing.

"Ian can read," Jonah, now back to normal color, looked at the British Cahill.

"Alright, hand over the book," Ian stopped laughing.

**Amy and Dan Cahill- Present**

_**Windchill suck at zero.**_

_**Check.**_

_**Piles of dirty snow on sidewalks.**_

_**Check.**_

_**Math test tomorrow.**_

_**Check.**_

_**Complete lack of preparation for test.**_

_**Check.**_

_**Social Studies Boredom Level: Ten**_

**(Sigh) **_**Check.**_

"This is Dan's thoughts, right?" Sinead looked at the two youngest Madrigals.

_**Dan Cahill's Existence: Situation Noraml!**_

**Dan tried to focus. Ms. Zapata's mouth was moving, but words were a blur of sound. Occasionally, something poked through, like **_**Etruscans**_**. Once, **_**bloody battle**_** got his attention until he lapsed back into boredom again.**

"Could you be any more of a dullard," Natalie mumbled. Nellie shot her a really evil look- but not as evil as Isabel's glares.

**He'd been trapped in social studies for about a hundred hours. Okay, forty-two minutes and thirteen seconds. It was the last class of the day, and it was so fascinating he could hardly stay asleep. He stared out the window at the slate-gray February sky and tried not to yawn.**

**Back in September, in the middle of the Clue hunt, if he'd thought about being in social studies class again? It would have seemed like heaven on a stick compared to getting chased, double crossed, and almost killed by his relatives. **

"Awww...you didn't enjoy our meetings?" Natalie ask sarcastically sweet and teasingly.

**When he and Amy had touched down at Logan Airport after their adventure, they'd both cheered. They couldn't wait to be just like this: bored out of their minds.**  
><strong>They'd just made one major miscalculation. They'd forgotten how boring being bored could be. Why hadn't Dan remembered Ms. Zapata's nickname? Everyone called her Ms. Zzzzz because she put her students to sleep.<strong>

The Holts snickered a little.

**The funny thing was, Dan had actually **_**experienced**_** what Ms. Zapata was now droning about. He'd been to Egypt. He'd felt the heat and tasted the dust. He'd felt a thrill slipping down the dark Nile in a boat post the Valley of the Kings.**  
><strong>Ms. Zapata made it soul like she was reading instructions on how to install a dishwasher.<strong>

**Just the a word floated out through the buzz saw of Zapata-speak: **_**Nefertari**_**. Dan tuned back in.**

"**...the most beautiful tomb in Egypt," Ms. Zapata was saying. "You probably know the queen because there's a famous bust of her."**

**A photo flashed on-screen.**

**Dan raised his hand. "That's Nefertiti," he said. "Different queen."**

"Dan is actually showing sign of being intelligence? The end of the world is coming!" Ned dramatically told everyone.

**Ms. Zapata frowned. She looked at her notes. "You could be right, Dan. Uh...let's move on."**

**Another slide flashed on-screen. "Now, this is the inner chamber of the tomb, where she was laid to rest."**

**Dan's hand rose again. Ms. Zapata closed her eyes.**

"**Actually? That's the side chamber."**

"**Really." Ms. Zapata's lips pressed together. "And how do you know this, Dan?"**

"**Because..." Dan hesitated. **_**Because I was there. Because I was locked inside the tomb with an ex-KGB spy, so I got to know it pretty well**_**.**

"Very creepy," Amy shuttered a little.

"**Especially since the tomb is closed for conservation," Ms. Zapata said.**  
><em><strong>Yeah. But we had this connection to an Egyptologist? Except he turned out to be a thief and a liar, so we captured him. I came this close to smashing him with a lamp...<strong>_  
><strong>Everyone was looking at him. Dan didn't know what to say, and <strong>_**that**_** never used to happen. He'd been back at school for four months, and the story for their five-week disappearance was that he and Amy had to take care of family matters after their grandmother's funeral. **

"That's was you story?" Jonah raised his eyebrow.

"Well, you don't have to go to school," Dan pointed out.

**Nobody was supposed to know that they'd been chasing Clues all over the world. Nobody was supposed to know that he'd been locked in a tomb. Or been shot at, buried alive, and almost blown up.**

"**I guess I was it somewhere," he mumbled.**

**Ms. Zapata tried not to look pleased. "Let's try and remember not to make claims that aren't true, shall we?" She let the moment hand there as everyone twisted in their seats look at Dan. He knew they were waiting for him to be Dan The Man, to snap back a comment that would be funny but not disrespectful enough to get him in huge trouble.**

"**Sure," he said.**

**Triumphantly, Ms. Zapata turned back to her notes. His classmates swiveled around again, disappointed that Dan hadn't caused Ms. Zapata to turn that awesome magenta color she did when she was aggravated.**

Amy gave a small laugh, remembering Ms. Zapata.

**Four months ago, he and Amy had thought it would be easy just to go back to their old lives. But it hadn't been easy. Dan knew that he'd changed. He didn't know how, exactly- he just knew he was different. It wasn't a kick anymore to contradict his teachers or make the whole class laugh.**

**Maybe it was the lack of sleep. Sometimes his nightmares scared him so bad he had to sleep with the lights on. He couldn't seem to connect with his old friends. He couldn't seem to care about the cool things he did before, like comic books and video games and the chances of the Red Sox taking the Series next season.**

"I don't really blame you," Alistair said.

**He'd become a loner. Which meant, in the world of middle school, he was tipping on the scale straight down toward Loser.**

**When the bell rang, he popped up quickly and scurried out the door. He made for the exit and didn't breathe freely until he hit the February air.**

"Well, I don't know about you people, but I'm going to go wait for lunch to come. I'm getting hungry," Nellie stood up.

Amy gave a small yawn. "I'm going to take a small nap."

One by one, the Cahills broke away from the table. The moment Amy put her head down she fell asleep. Dreaming a pleasant dream...

* * *

><p><strong>AN: The next chapter(which I'll post tomorrow(or tonight) will be Amy's dream. WHICH will hopefully give the Amy/Ian part you-everyone- want.**

**In honor of the 3rd Sailor Moon manga coming out tomorrow. Quote: "Working hard, Serena? Or hardly working?"- Haruka/Amara Tenoh, Sailor Moon**

**Hopefully I'll see you in like 20 minutes again ^^  
><strong>

**-Catfriend3000  
><strong>


	34. Extra: Amy Cahill's Dream

**A/N: Okay this is _VERY_ short and not really necessary for the story, but I thought that if I didn't put any Amy/Ian moments, people would have my head.**

* * *

><p>The room started quiet, but of course with the Cahills, quietness doesn't last long...<p>

Amy, however, was already asleep by then and have a pleasant dream...

* * *

><p><em>A pearl white shooting star flew by two people in a garden.<em>

"_Did you see that?" a girl with auburn hair asked her dark brown hair companion_

"_I saw." the dark brown haired boy looked her in the eyes, which made her blush beet red._

_The girl looked around the garden. There were all kinds of roses all around them. Purple, red, white, yellow, blue, and black. But her favorites were the green ones. They reminded her much of her family- the Cahills with Jade green eyes._

_Her companion saw her gaze at the roses. He sauntered over to the bush of green roses. She watched with a small sparkle in her jade green eyes._

_When he turned around holding a green rose, she turned an even deeper shade of red- if possible. He was about to say..._

* * *

><p>"HEY! AMY! Lunch's here!" Dan startled Amy from her dream.<p>

Amy rose her head off the pillow and glared at Dan, who had his head turned away from her. Ian just _happened_ to look her way at the moment, which caused her to blush the color she did in her dream. She didn't even _want_ to think of what the dream meant.

'_Well, a dream is just a dream. He would never do that in reality...'_ She sadly thought. With that in mind she got out of her bed and walked over to the table where everyone else was. Hoping that there was still some food left.

* * *

><p><strong>AN: This is my work but not intention for this story. The dream is from my English short story, that I wrote about a month ago...**

**If you want to read the whole thing, it's on FictionPress named, "A Blue Rose Dream". It was my first try a romance so it- to me at least- sucked. People in my class the story was good, so I decided to use it as part of the story. If you read the story ("Blue Rose") you'll get how I plan/want to put the dream in this story.**

**** I don't think I did one yet, so in honor of Amy/Ian** Quote:** "Hi Amy. It's Ian. Been thinking about me?"- Ian Kabra, the 39 Clues****

**See you whenever I update next...**

**-Catfriend3000  
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	35. Temporary Chapter 1

**A/N: Before I start, let me say "I'm sorry"...  
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**I know I hate this, and I know that a lot of other people(if not all) hate it when an author puts their story on hiatus. It's just that my shoolwork comes first in my life, and that's taking up a lot of my time. Next comes my flute play, which is also taking up time, and a lot of other things come before fanfic v.v**

**It's not that I don't like fanfiction, I do and I'm on this site A LOT, it's just that the fanficing(if that's a word) needs time, and for me there's not enough hours in the day... If there were about 30-ish hours in a day, this all would be different, trust me... At my school, third quarter just ended, and third quarter is always the HARDEST quarters(by that I'm mean like 5-ish projects at a time, a debate, in class stuff, and daily homework), so that's using up my time. I'm hoping 4th is a little easier(this year in general has been pretty hard).  
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**My original plan was to work on this during Spring break, BUT even then I'm busy. I'm going to DisneyLand with my orchestra to play in a festival, and we'll be gone for most of the week... And even the weekends in general because of homework and I'm usually tired because we have a major work every other Friday, if we're not running the mile(pure torture).**

**So because of all of this, you probably won't see an update(besides this one) until the summer... Even then it might not be so faster because I'm taking an Algebra course at my school, and if I do well, I can SKIP 8th math, and go straight to 9th math.  
>That's probably going to lose A LOT of people, but I just can't keep up with all of this... Hey on the bright side, when I return, I'm adding some romance(well more than before) soo...<strong>

**Again I'm sorry, and I'm prepared for anything(i.e flames, comments, etc.). I'll take down this chapter as soon as I start to update again...  
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**-Catfriend3000**

**(If someone REALLY wants to see this finished fast and better, they can temporarily take over or take over completely. All I need is to get away from all this work.)**

**(If you see ANY work from me, it will probably be an One-Shot, which doesn't need as much time as a multi-chapter story)  
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